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First published online July 2, 2008

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SPIRAL2 prevents a pause

Microtubules (MTs) polymerise and depolymerise dynamically, and microtubule ends exist in one of three states: growth, pause and shrinkage. Although long pauses are frequently observed in animal cells, MTs rarely remain in the pause state for longer than 30 seconds in plant cells in interphase – but what controls how long MTs spend pausing? On page 2372, Takashi Hashimoto and colleagues investigate the role of the Arabidopsis MT-associated protein SPIRAL2 (SPR2) and its close homologue SPIRAL2-Like (SP2L) in MT dynamics. Plants that harbour spr2 mutations are known to display twisted (right-handed helical) growth, and the authors show that overexpressing SP2L rescues this phenotype. Moreover, MTs in mutant plants spend less time in the pause state when SPR2 is overexpressed. The authors also show that, in plants, GFP-tagged SPR2 and SP2L localise partially to the plus ends of cortical MTs and, in an in vitro assay, both proteins (expressed as trigger-factor fusion proteins) increase the rate of MT polymerisation. Crucially, SPR2 and SP2L both minimise the frequency of growth-to-pause and shrinkage-to-pause transitions in vitro, and decrease the time that MT plus ends spend in the pause state. The authors conclude that SPR2 and SP2L promote MT growth and shrinkage by suppressing the pause state.

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Related articles in JCS:

Arabidopsis SPIRAL2 promotes uninterrupted microtubule growth by suppressing the pause state of microtubule dynamics

Maki Yao, Yoshinori Wakamatsu, Tomohiko J. Itoh, Tsubasa Shoji, and Takashi Hashimoto
JCS 2008 121: 2372-2381. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in JCS Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?