γ-Tubulin complexes in microtubule nucleation and beyond.

Berl R Oakley, Vitoria Paolillo, Yixian Zheng

Molecular biology of the cell 2015 Sep 1

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Tremendous progress has been made in understanding the functions of γ-tubulin and, in particular, its role in microtubule nucleation since the publication of its discovery in 1989. The structure of γ-tubulin has been determined, and the components of γ-tubulin complexes have been identified. Significant progress in understanding the structure of the γ-tubulin ring complex and its components has led to a persuasive model for how these complexes nucleate microtubule assembly. At the same time, data have accumulated that γ-tubulin has important but less well understood functions that are not simply a consequence of its function in microtubule nucleation. These include roles in the regulation of plus-end microtubule dynamics, gene regulation, and mitotic and cell cycle regulation. Finally, evidence is emerging that γ-tubulin mutations or alterations of γ-tubulin expression play an important role in certain types of cancer and in other diseases. © 2015 Oakley et al. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). Two months after publication it is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

Citation

Berl R Oakley, Vitoria Paolillo, Yixian Zheng. γ-Tubulin complexes in microtubule nucleation and beyond. Molecular biology of the cell. 2015 Sep 1;26(17):2957-62