The Journal of Cell Biology, Vol 74, 341-350, Copyright © 1977 by The Rockefeller University Press

ARTICLES

A sensitive method for measuring polymerized and depolymerized forms of tubulin in tissues

DG Pipeleers, MA Pipeleers-Marichal, P Sherline and DM Kipnis

A rapid method for measuring polymerized and depolymerized forms of tubulin in tissues has been developed. The procedure consists of homogenization and centrifugation of the tissue in a microtubule- stabilizing solution and depolymerization of the precipitated microtubules; polymerized and depolymerized forms of tubulin are quantitated by a colchicine-binding assay. The validity of the technique was assessed by electron microscopy and recovery studies with labeled and unlabeled preparations of polymerized and depolymerized forms of rat brain tubulin. The sensitivity of this technique allows quantitation of tubulin in 150 micrograms of tissue, wet weight. The method demonstrated that both the polymerized and depolymerized forms of tubulin were present in rat liver cells, and that in the fed state 31.3 +/-0.7% of the total tubulin pool was in the polymerized form.
CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Kannan, H., Fan, S., Patel, D., Bossis, I., Zhang, Y.-J. (2009). The Hepatitis E Virus Open Reading Frame 3 Product Interacts with Microtubules and Interferes with Their Dynamics. J. Virol. 83: 6375-6382 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Correa, L. M., Miller, M. G. (2001). Microtubule Depolymerization in Rat Seminiferous Epithelium Is Associated with Diminished Tyrosination of {{alpha}}-Tubulin. Biol. Reprod. 64: 1644-1652 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Zhai, Y, Borisy, G. (1994). Quantitative determination of the proportion of microtubule polymer present during the mitosis-interphase transition. J. Cell Sci. 107: 881-890 [Abstract]  

Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents