Measuring the persistence length of MCF7 cell microtubules in vitro.

Biotechnol J

Department of Physics, Seton Hall University, 400 South Orange Ave., South Orange, NJ 07079, USA.

Published: July 2011

The dynamic and mechanical properties of mammalian neural microtubules have been widely studied; however, similar knowledge about these properties is limited for non-neural microtubules, which, unlike neural microtubules, consist of different β-tubulin isotypes. In this study, we report, for the first time, an estimated value for the persistence length of a single non-neural microtubule polymerized from purified tubulin from human breast cancer cell lines (MCF7 tubulin). The method of measurement is based on an analysis of the local curvature of a microtubule as a result of thermal fluctuations. In parallel, we measured the persistence length of a single bovine brain microtubule under similar conditions. The results of our measurements indicate a higher value for the persistence length of MCF7 microtubules in vitro as compared to the persistence length of a neural microtubule. The difference can be associated with different β-tubulin isotypes in the structure of MCF7 microtubules.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/biot.201000465DOI Listing

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