First published online September 22, 2005
Journal of Cell Science 118, 1901e (2005)
© The Company of Biologists Limited
Keep the cilia beating
Microtubules form the scaffold - or axoneme - that supports the hair-like cilia found on many eukaryotic cells. Microtubules themselves are composed of protofilaments of 
ß tubulin heterodimers, and in Drosophila an EGEFXXX motif (where X is an acidic amino acid) in the ß tubulin C-terminus is needed for ciliary function. Richard Hallworth and co-workers now reveal that similar motifs in ßI, ßIV and ßV tubulins are directly involved in mammalian ciliary beating (see p. 4333). They find that monoclonal antibodies directed against the C-terminus of these three tubulins inhibit the beat frequency of isolated, ATP-reactivated bovine tracheal cilia. Antibodies against other ß tubulin epitopes or against tubulin have no effect. Peptides containing the axonemal motif sequences of ßI, ßIV and ßV tubulin also block ciliary beating, the acidic residues and the central phenylalanine residue being particularly important for inhibition. The authors conclude that the axonemal motif present in a subset of mammalian ß tubulins is important for ciliary function but that the C-terminus of tubulin is not directly involved in ciliary beating.
Related articles in JCS:
- Direct involvement of the isotype-specific C-terminus of ß tubulin in ciliary beating
- Julia Vent, Todd A. Wyatt, D. David Smith, Asok Banerjee, Richard F. Ludueña, Joseph H. Sisson, and Richard Hallworth
JCS 2005 118: 4333-4341.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
