A cell's contents are organized by a scaffolding of microtubules. These long, thin polymers continuously grow and shrink, and the structures of two forms of the constituent protein provide clues to how this occurs.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Wang, H. -W. & Nogales, E. Nature 435, 911–915 (2005).
Mitchison, T. & Kirschner, M. Nature 312, 237–242 (1984).
Holy, T. E. & Leibler, S. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 91, 5682–5685 (1994).
Inoue, S. & Salmon, E. D. Mol. Biol. Cell 6, 1619–1640 (1995).
Chretien, D., Fuller, S. D. & Karsenti, E. J. Cell Biol. 129, 1311–1328 (1995).
Kirschner, M. W., Williams, R. C., Weingarten, M. & Gerhart, J. C. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 71, 1159–1163 (1974).
Nogales, E., Whittaker, M., Milligan, R. A. & Downing, K. H. Cell 96, 79–88 (1999).
Molodtsov, M. I. et al. Biophys. J. 88, 3167–3179 (2005).
Kebadze, E., Guest, S. D. & Pellegrino, S. Int. J. Solids Struct. 41, 2801–2820 (2004).
Kis, A. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 24801–24804 (2002).
Gildersleeve, R. F., Cross, A. R., Cullen, K. E., Fagen, A. P. & Williams, R. C. Jr J. Biol. Chem. 267, 7995–8006 (1992).
Carvalho, P., Tirnauer, J. S. & Pellman, D. Trends Cell Biol. 13, 229–237 (2003).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mahadevan, L., Mitchison, T. Powerful curves. Nature 435, 895–897 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/435895a
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/435895a