A +TIP for a smooth trip.
Is there a cellular mechanism for preventing a depolymerizing microtubule track from "slipping out from under" its cargo? A recent study in budding yeast indicates that when a chromosome is transported to the minus end of a spindle microtubule, its kinetochore-bound microtubule plus end-tracking protein (+TIP) Stu2 may move to the plus end to promote rescue; i.e., to switch the depolymerizing end to a polymerizing end. The possibility that other +TIPs may play a similar role in sustaining a microtubule track during vesicular transport deserves investigation.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA. xxiang@usuhs.mil
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D000818:Animals; D001693:Biological Transport, Active / Q000502:physiology; D008868:Microtubule Proteins / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology
D008868:Microtubule Proteins; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; C109414:STU2 protein, S cerevisiae; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; C076744:cytoplasmic linker protein 170