α-tubulin

A major cytoskeleton protein

General Information

Microtubules are involved in a wide variety of cellular activities ranging from mitosis and transport events to cell movement and the maintainance of cell shape.
Tubulin itself is a globular protein which consists of two polypeptides, α-tubulin and β-tubulin. α- and β-tubulin dimers are assembled to 13 protofilaments that form a microtubule of 22 nm diameter. Tyrosine ligase ads a C-terminal tyrosin to monomeric α-tubulin.
Assembled microtubules can again be detyrosinated by a cytoskeleton associated carboxypeptidase. Detyrosinated α-tubulin is referred to as Glu-α-tubulin. Another post-translational modification of detyrosinated α-tubulin is C-terminal polyglutamylation which is characteristic for microtubules in neuronal cells and the mitotic spindle. A third variant of detyrosinated α-tubulin is Δ2-tubulin which lacks the C-terminal glutamic acid. It cannot be tyrosinated by tyrosine ligase and is one of the dominant α-tubulin isoforms in neurons.