Luminal Particles Within Cellular Microtubules

Overview

Journal J Cell Biol

Specialty Cell Biology

Date 2006 Sep 7

PMID 16954350

Citations 48

Authors

Boyan K Garvalov

Benoit Zuber

Cedric Bouchet-Marquis

Mikhail Kudryashev

Manuela Gruska

Martin Beck

Andrew Leis

Friedrich Frischknecht

Frank Bradke

Wolfgang Baumeister

Jacques Dubochet

Marek Cyrklaff

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The regulation of microtubule dynamics is attributed to microtubule-associated proteins that bind to the microtubule outer surface, but little is known about cellular components that may associate with the internal side of microtubules. We used cryoelectron tomography to investigate in a quantitative manner the three dimensional structure of microtubules in intact mammalian cells. We show that the lumen of microtubules in this native state is filled with discrete, globular particles with a diameter of 7 nm and spacings between 8 and 20 nm in neuronal cells. Cross-sectional views of microtubules confirm the presence of luminal material in vitreous sections of brain tissue. Most of the luminal particles had connections to the microtubule wall, as revealed in tomograms. A higher accumulation of particles was seen near the retracting plus ends of microtubules. The luminal particles were abundant in neurons, but were also observed in other cells, such as astrocytes and stem cells.

Citing Articles

Cryo-ET suggests tubulin chaperones form a subset of microtubule lumenal particles with a role in maintaining neuronal microtubules.

Chakraborty S, Martinez-Sanchez A, Beck F, Toro-Nahuelpan M, Hwang I, Noh K Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025; 122(5):e2404017121.

PMID: 39888918 PMC: 11804619. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2404017121.

Handling Difficult Cryo-ET Samples: A Study with Primary Neurons from Drosophila melanogaster.

Kim J, Yang J, Mitchell J, English L, Yang S, Tenpas T Microsc Microanal. 2023; 29(6):2127-2148.

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CEP104/FAP256 and associated cap complex maintain stability of the ciliary tip.

Legal T, Parra M, Tong M, Black C, Joachimiak E, Valente-Paterno M J Cell Biol. 2023; 222(11).

PMID: 37756660 PMC: 10522465. DOI: 10.1083/jcb.202301129.

CryoET shows cofilactin filaments inside the microtubule lumen.

Ventura Santos C, Rogers S, Carter A EMBO Rep. 2023; 24(11):e57264.

PMID: 37702953 PMC: 10626427. DOI: 10.15252/embr.202357264.

CryoET shows cofilactin filaments inside the microtubule lumen.

Ventura Santos C, Rogers S, Carter A bioRxiv. 2023; .

PMID: 37034688 PMC: 10081314. DOI: 10.1101/2023.03.31.535077.

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