title: Microtubules: strange polymers inside the cell.
abstract: This paper provides a consistent approach (within a one-dimensional approximation) to the description of the evolution of the microtubule length at both low- and high-density concentrations. We derive general master-type equations which are based on the key chemical reactions involved in the assembly and disassembly of microtubules. The processes included are: polymerization and depolymerization of a single protein dimer, catastrophic disassembly affecting an a piori arbitrary number of dimers, and a rescue event. Solutions of the derived equations are compared with the existing experimental data. Important conclusions linking the emergence of bell-shaped histograms with the nature of catastrophe and rescue phenomena are drawn. Finally, we briefly discuss the emergence of coherent phenomena in microtubule polymerization, i.e., a transition to collective oscillations in the assembly and disassembly effects.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Theoretische Physik, Justus-Liebig Universität Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bolterauer
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Limbach
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Tuszyński
mesh_terms: D001704:Biopolymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D006153:Guanosine Diphosphate / Q000737:chemistry; D006160:Guanosine Triphosphate / Q000737:chemistry; D008870:Microtubules / Q000737:chemistry*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D011336:Probability
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers; D006153:Guanosine Diphosphate; D006160:Guanosine Triphosphate