title: Heterotrimeric G proteins and microtubules.
abstract: Microtubules, major components of the cytoskeleton, play important roles in a variety of cellular functions including mitosis, intracellular transport, and the modulation of cell morphology. Several studies have demonstrated that specific G-protein alpha subunits bind to tubulin with a high affinity (~130 nM) and elicit various functional effects on tubulin and microtubules. In this chapter, we present a description of the protocols for several methods that are used to determine the interaction between heterotrimeric G proteins and tubulin, as well as functional consequences of the interactions including protocols for protein purification, binding assays, tubulin GTPase assays, microtubule dynamics assays, and assays for cytoskeletal consequences of G-protein-coupled receptor signaling.
authors: Department of Physiology, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
authors: Witchuda
authors: W
authors: Saengsawang
authors: Mark M
authors: MM
authors: Rasenick
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D020558:GTP Phosphohydrolases / Q000378:metabolism; D044385:GTP-Binding Protein alpha Subunits / Q000378:metabolism*; D008870:Microtubules / Q000378:metabolism*; D040081:Protein Array Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D011485:Protein Binding; D012756:Sheep; D015398:Signal Transduction; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000379:methods*; D014404:Tubulin / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D044385:GTP-Binding Protein alpha Subunits; D014404:Tubulin; D020558:GTP Phosphohydrolases
keywords: G proteins; GPCR; GTPase; Gsα; Microtubule dynamics; Microtubules; Tubulin