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Science 8 December 1989:
Vol. 246. no. 4935, pp. 1291 - 1293
DOI: 10.1126/science.2588005
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Articles

Science, Vol 246, Issue 4935, 1291-1293
Copyright © 1989 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Spatial patterns from oscillating microtubules

E Mandelkow, EM Mandelkow, H Hotani, B Hess, and SC Muller

Max-Planck-Unit for Structural Molecular Biology, Hamburg, West Germany.

Microtubules are fibers of the cytoskeleton involved in the generation of cell shape and motility. They can be highly dynamic and are capable of temporal oscillations in their state of assembly. Solutions of tubulin (the subunit protein of microtubules) and guanosine triphosphate (GTP, the cofactor required for microtubule assembly and oscillations) can generate various dissipative structures. They include traveling waves of microtubule assembly and disassembly as well as polygonal networks. The results imply that cytoskeletal proteins can form dynamic spatial structures by themselves, even in the absence of cellular organizing centers. Thus the microtubule system could serve as a simple model for studying pattern formation by biomolecules in vitro.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Microtubule bundling and nested buckling drive stripe formation in polymerizing tubulin solutions.
Y. Liu, Y. Guo, J. M. Valles Jr., and J. X. Tang (2006)
PNAS 103, 10654-10659
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Self-organization in living cells.
B Hess and A Mikhailov (1994)
Science 264, 223-224
   PDF »
Morphological bifurcations involving reaction-diffusion processes during microtubule formation.
J Tabony (1994)
Science 264, 245-248
   Abstract »    PDF »


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