Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 7
Moonlighting Function of the Tubulin
Cytoskeleton: Macromolecular Architectures
in the Cytoplasm
Judit Ov ´ di and Vic Norris
Abstract Cells face the enormous challenge of generating a single phenotype that
must be coherent with myriad internal and external conditions. For such
phenotypes to have multifarious but meaningful outputs entails the sensing, and
integration of a wide variety of chemical and physical information, hence the
coordination of metabolic and signaling processes. This sensing, integration, and
coordination are carried out by the complex ultrastructural arrays and moonlighting
functions of the cytoskeletal network. In the cellular context, the direction and
potency of sensing are determined by the structure-related responses of the cyto-
skeletal network to the activity of individual macromolecules in conjunction with
associated metabolites and nucleotides. These responses comprise the binding
(hetero-association) of these macromolecules to the cytoskeleton and the
consequences of this binding on the behavior of both partners, among them the
stability and dynamics of the cytoskeleton, and the catalytic and regulatory
properties of the individual proteins (and/or their specific complexes). The latter
is of specific importance in regulation at a high level of organization via the
formation of microcompartments in linear pathways or at metabolic crossroads.
In addition, key players in many metabolic and signaling pathways are nucleotides
such as ATP and GTP that have a crucial role in cytoskeleton-mediated events.
These issues are illustrated with examples, and the sensing power of dynamic
macromolecular associations is discussed.
J. Ov´di ( * )
Institute of Enzymology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of
Sciences, Karolina ´ t 29, Budapest 1113, Hungary
e-mail: ovadi@enzim.hu
V. Norris
Faculty of Science, University of Rouen, Mont Saint Aignan Cedex, France
Search WWH ::




Custom Search