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Review

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 9, 309–322 (1 April 2008) | doi:10.1038/nrm2369

Tracking the ends: a dynamic protein network controls the fate of microtubule tips

Anna Akhmanova & Michel O. Steinmetz

Microtubule plus-end tracking proteins (+TIPs) are a diverse group of evolutionarily conserved cellular factors that accumulate at the ends of growing microtubules. They form dynamic networks through the interaction of a limited set of protein modules, repeat sequences and linear motifs that bind to each other with moderate affinities. +TIPs regulate different aspects of cell architecture by controlling microtubule dynamics, microtubule interactions with cellular structures and signalling factors, and the forces that are exerted on microtubule networks.