Lecture 15 & 16 Cytoskeleton and cell motility Flashcards
What is a cytoskeleton?
A network of interconnected filaments and tubules
- Polymers
- Dynamic
What is the function of the cytoskeleton?
- Cell structure and mechanics
- Force generation – motility
- Intracellular transport
- Cell division
What are the 3 major structural elements that make up the cytoskeleton?
Ø Microtubules
Ø Microfilaments
Ø Intermediate filaments
What are microtublues?
- make up of heterodimers of alpha and beta tubulin proteins, which wrap around eachother to form a tubular shape.
- it has (+) and (-) ends
- are the largest of the cytoskeletal elements of a cell
What are microfilaments?
- made up of globular proteins (G - actin monomers) to produce two interwinded F - actins filaments
- has (+) and (-) end
- the smallest of the cytoskeletal filaments
What are intermediate filaments?
- intermediate in size bwteen microtubules anf microfilaments
- alot of variation between them
- made up of individual protien dimers end to end and side to side, then build up
What are the two types of microtubules? Function?
- Cytoplasmic microtubules: found throughout cytoplasm, used for regulation of cell structure, vesical transport (axons) and divison (formation of mitotic spindles).
- Axonemal microtubules (organised and stable): found in flagella, cilia and basal bodies; used for cell motility and signalling hub (secondary use)
What are the building blocks of microtubules?
What is microtubule polymerisation and assemnly process?
- highly regulated and dymanic process
3 steps:
- Nucleation
- Elongation
- Platueau (treadmilling)
How are microtubules formed?
- Nucleation: tubules start to get together and assemble small stable structure.
- Elongation: radpidly elongate to form a long tubule
- Plateau: stop growing (steady state)
Why?
- the rate of addition is proportional to the concentration of free tubulin
Microtubule growth is dependent on what?
concentration
• Critical concentration – is the tubulin concentration at which MT assembly is exactly balanced with disassembly
What is the effect that the MT growth is polarised?
High affinity for + end (add more to this end)
Low affinity for - end (add less to this end)
What happened at the steady state (treadmilling)?
What is dymanic instability?
microtubules can switch between phases of rapid growth, rapid shrinkage and dissembly.
The model: one population of MTs grows by polymerization at the plus ends whereas another population shrinks by depolymerization
Individual MTs can go through periods of growth and shrinkage: microtubule catastrophe - a switch from growth to shrinkage microtubule rescue - a sudden switch back to growth phase
What causes dynamic instability?
Due to the GTP cap
At low tubulin concentrations:
- GTP hydrolyzes, which causes its own depletion of the GTP cap, making it unstable, leading to catastrophe
How are the MT organised?
Microtubules originate from a microtubule-organizing center (MTOC), aka the centrosome
How is MT growth and stability regulated?
• Microtubule-stabilizing/bundling proteins:
- tau
MAP2
+–TIP proteins
• Microtubule-destabilizing/severing proteins:
- Stathmin/Op18
Catastrophins
katanins
What are examples of MT inhibitors?
- Colchicine - promotes MT disassembly
- Nocodazole - inhibits MT assembly
anitmitotic drugs: interferes with spindle assembly, inhibits cell division and useful for cancer treatement
What is the role of microfilaments?
– Muscle contraction
– Intracellular tension and cell shape
– Cell migration: lamellar and amoeboid movement
– Cytoplasmic transport
What is actin?
is the monomeric building block in microfilaments
- 42 kDa protein
- Abundant in all eukaryotic cells
- Polymerises into filaments
- Binds ATP/ADP
Multiple types:
– α-actin (muscle specific)
– β-actin and γ-actin (all cells)
G-Actin monomers polymerize into ____ microfilaments. How does this work?
G-Actin monomers polymerize into F-Actin microfilaments.
- form two coiled filaments bound by ATP or ADP.
- they bind when ATP is introduced, having a higher affinity to (+) end
- ATP hydrolizes into ADP, losing phsphate group becoming less stable and therefore more prone to dissembly on the (-) end