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Volume 10Nov 2009

Scientific Report

  • EMBO reports (2009) 10, 857 - 865
  • doi:10.1038/embor.2009.94

Published online: 19 June 2009

TIP150 interacts with and targets MCAK at the microtubule plus endsEMBO Open

Kai Jiang1,2, Jianyu Wang1, Jing Liu1, Tarsha Ward2, Linda Wordeman3, Alec Davidson2, Fengsong Wang1,2 & Xuebiao Yao1

  1. Anhui Key Laboratory for Cellular Dynamics and Chemical Biology, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Nanoscale, and University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China
  2. Department of Physiology, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30310, USA
  3. Department of Physiology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA

Correspondence to:

Xuebiao Yao, Tel: +86 551 3606304; Fax: +86 551 3607141;
E-mail: yaoxb@ustc.edu.cn

Received 14 November 2008; Revised 6 April 2009; Accepted 7 April 2009

The microtubule (MT) cytoskeleton orchestrates the cellular plasticity and dynamics that underlie morphogenesis and cell division. Growing MT plus ends have emerged as dynamic regulatory machineries in which specialized proteins—called plus-end tracking proteins (+TIPs)—bind to and control the plus-end dynamics that are essential for cell division and migration. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the plus-end regulation by +TIPs at spindle and astral MTs have remained elusive. Here, we show that TIP150 is a new +TIP that binds to end-binding protein 1 (EB1) in vitro and co-localizes with EB1 at the MT plus ends in vivo. Suppression of EB1 eliminates the plus-end localization of TIP150. Interestingly, TIP150 also binds to mitotic centromere-associated kinesin (MCAK), an MT depolymerase that localizes to the plus end of MTs. Suppression of TIP150 diminishes the plus-end localization of MCAK. Importantly, aurora B-mediated phosphorylation disrupts the TIP150–MCAK association in vitro. We reason that TIP150 facilitates the EB1-dependent loading of MCAK onto MT plus ends and orchestrates the dynamics at the plus end of MTs.

  • Keywords:

    • microtubule,
    • MAP,
    • TIP150,
    • MCAK,
    • EB1

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This license does not permit commercial exploitation without specific permission.

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