Microtubules (MTs) are essential for many cellular processes including establishment of cell shape and polarity, chromosome segregation, vesicle transport, and nuclear positioning. Human cells express 22 tubulin isoforms that have both overlapping and distinctive functions. Tubulins reversely polymerize to form cylindrical MTs, while MT‐associated proteins (MAPs), posttranslational modifications (PTMs), and mechanical forces regulate their functions. To help both tubulin researchers and medicinal chemists, this review article lists 489 MAPs, 43 known enzymes that mediate PTMs, and 306 drugs that influence the functions of MTs and MAPs and discusses recent microtubule research. Readers are able to sort the list based on name, size, functions, related human diseases, and date of discovery. The list also contains links to Uniprot and Protein Atlas databases to access further details such as protein structure, associated proteins, subcellular localization, expression levels in cells and tissues, mutations, and pathology. Because the microtubule cytoskeleton is involved in many pathological processes such as tumorigenesis, invasion, and developmental diseases, small molecules that target on MT and MAPs hold potential to treat these diseases and are also listed.
3D semiconductor crystals are ideal to manipulate electronic devices. Therefore, how to prepare 3D semiconductor crystals is interesting. Here, we firstly report a facile and general route to 3D PANI nanoflowers self-assembed by nanoplates. A set of doping control experiments are carried out to find out the key factor in determining conductivity. At proper doping level of CSA, XRD patterns indicate PANI-CSA nanoplates crystallized well. HRTEM images further indicate these nanoplates are single crystals, which self assemble into nanoflowers. Interestingly, these nanoflowers have the highest conductivity due to the highest crystallinity and proper doping level. Thus, it can be concluded that crystallinity and doping level are two important factors influencing the conductivity. The novel method will be readily scalable to produce bulk quantities of PANI single crystals.
Microtubule‐associated proteins (MAPs) regulate assembly and stability of microtubules (MTs) during cell cytokinesis, cell migration, neuronal growth, axon guidance, and synapse formation. Using data mining of the Human Protein Atlas database and experimental screening, we identified nucleosome assembly protein 1 like 1 (NAP1L1) as a new MAP. The Human Protein Atlas and PubMed database screening identified 99 potential new MAPs. Twenty candidate proteins that highly co‐localized with MTs were exogenously expressed with green fluorescent protein (GFP) or hemagglutinin (HA) tags in tissue culture cells and MTs were co‐stained for immunofluorescent microscopy. We found that NAP1L1 is mainly localized in the cytosol with MTs during interphase. Using bacterially expressed recombinant NAP1L1 fragments and purified MTs, we biochemically mapped the MT‐binding site on the N‐terminal region (1–72aa) and the central region (164–269aa) of NAP1L1. NAP1L1 dimerizes through the long helix region (73–163aa), and full‐length NAP1L1 induces the formation of thick MTs, indicating that NAP1L1 has the ability to bundle MTs in cells. Analysis of publicly available RNA‐seq data of NAP1L1 depleted cells suggested that NAP1L1 is involved in cell adhesion and migration in agreement with the function of NAP1L1 as a MAP.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.