Ordering microtubules.
How do cells order their cytoplasm? While microtubule organizing centers have long been considered essential to conferring order by virtue of their microtubule nucleating activity, attention has currently refocused on the role that microtubule motors play in organizing microtubules. An intriguing set of recent findings reveals that cell fragments, lacking microtubule organizing centers, rapidly organize microtubules into a radial array during organelle transport driven by the microtubule motor, cytoplasmic dynein. Further, interaction of radial microtubules with the cell surface centers the array, revealing that centering information resides not with centrosomes but with organized microtubules.
Haimo
L T
LT
Department of Biology, University of California, Riverside 92521, USA. lhaimo@citrus.ucr.edu
D000818:Animals; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000737:chemistry; D004398:Dyneins / Q000502:physiology; D008547:Melanophores / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008870:Microtubules / Q000502:physiology*; D015388:Organelles / Q000502:physiology
D004398:Dyneins