Nicholas J. Cowan and Sally A. Lewis are in the Department
of Biochemistry, New York University Medical Center, 550 First
Avenue, New York, New York 10016,
USA.
The folding of native tubulin involves at least seven different chaperone
proteins: prefoldin, the cytosolic chaperonin CCT and five tubulin-specific
chaperone proteins named cofactors A−E. The structure of the yeast homolog
of cofactor A, Rbl2p, shows it to be a dimer with largely hydrophilic surfaces,
reflecting the fact that it interacts with quasi-native, not unfolded, -tubulin.
-tubulin.
