Articulated tubes.
High quality images of microtubules with different numbers of protofilaments, and hence substantially different curvatures, have been reconstructed from electron microscopy (EM) data (Sui and Downing, 2010). The data show how three versatile loops that mediate lateral interactions allow microtubules to be strong without being brittle.
Amos
Linda A
LA
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK. laa@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk