Uploaded October 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Cells must build cytoskeleton structures, such as microtubules, where they are locally needed within the cell, but how do they do this? In this video abstract, Amayra Hernández-Vega explains that in a test tube, microtubules can be formed locally through phase separation. She found that the protein Tau can phase separate into droplets, which can then concentrate enough tubulin to nucleate and build microtubules.
Read more in the full paper, published in the journal Cell Reports: cell.com/cell-reports/abstract/S2211-1247(17)31149-X
See the full blog post at: sciencesketches.org/single-post/2017/10/12/Microtubule-nucleation-through-phase-separation
Amayra Hernández-Vega is a postdoc in the lab of Tony Hyman (hymanlab.mpi-cbg.de) at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany.
Cells must build cytoskeleton structures, such as microtubules, where they are locally needed within the cell, but how do they do this? In this video abstract, Amayra Hernández-Vega explains that in a test tube, microtubules can be formed locally through phase separation. She found that the protein Tau can phase separate into droplets, which can then concentrate enough tubulin to nucleate and build microtubules.
Read more in the full paper, published in the journal Cell Reports: cell.com/cell-reports/abstract/S2211-1247(17)31149-X
See the full blog post at: sciencesketches.org/single-post/2017/10/12/Microtubule-nucleation-through-phase-separation
Amayra Hernández-Vega is a postdoc in the lab of Tony Hyman (hymanlab.mpi-cbg.de) at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany.
