Axonal microtubules of crayfish and spiny lobster nerve cords are decorated with a heat-stable protein of high molecular weight

1984 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
R.H. Warren

Axons of crayfish and spiny lobster ventral nerve cords contain large numbers of microtubules that are decorated with fine filaments. These microtubules can be stabilized in permeabilized axons using buffers that contain either polyethylene glycol or glycerol/dimethyl sulphoxide. In the former, the stabilized microtubules retain their filaments and their normal spacing; in the latter, the filaments are stripped off and the bare microtubules collapse onto one another. This observation has been used as the basis for a method of identifying some of the proteins that make up the filaments. Axons are first permeabilized and stabilized in either buffer and then treated with a microtubule-depolymerizing buffer. The axons treated first with polyethylene glycol release tubulin and significant quantities of microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs), while the axons pre-treated with glycerol release tubulin and only traces of associated proteins. One of the proteins released in largest quantity along with tubulin from polyethylene glycol-treated axons is a high molecular weight, heat-stable MAP that co-electrophoreses with MAP-2 from mammalian brain. This same protein co-purifies with tubulin that is obtained from crayfish nerve cords by two cycles of polymerization and depolymerization. It is concluded that this protein is a component of the filaments that decorate the axonal microtubules of the crayfish and spiny lobster.

1977 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 642-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
L A Amos

The arrangement of the high molecular weight proteins associated with the walls of reconstituted mammalian brain microtubules has been investigated by electron microscopy of negatively stained preparations. The images are found to be consistent with an arrangement whereby the high molecular weight molecules are spaced 12 tubulin dimers apart, i.e., 960 A, along each protofilament of the microtubule, in agreement with the relative stoichiometry of tubulin and high molecular weight protein. Molecules on neighbouring protofilaments seem to be staggered so that they give rise to a helical superlattice, which can be superimposed on the underlying tubulin lattice. In micrographs of disintegrating tubules there is some indication of lateral interactions between neighbouring high molecular weight molecules. When the microtubules are depolymerized into a mixture of short spirals and rings, the high molecular weight proteins appear to remain attached to their respective protofilaments.


Author(s):  
Richard B. Vallee

Microtubules are involved in a number of forms of intracellular motility, including mitosis and bidirectional organelle transport. Purified microtubules from brain and other sources contain tubulin and a diversity of microtubule associated proteins (MAPs). Some of the high molecular weight MAPs - MAP 1A, 1B, 2A, and 2B - are long, fibrous molecules that serve as structural components of the cytamatrix. Three MAPs have recently been identified that show microtubule activated ATPase activity and produce force in association with microtubules. These proteins - kinesin, cytoplasmic dynein, and dynamin - are referred to as cytoplasmic motors. The latter two will be the subject of this talk.Cytoplasmic dynein was first identified as one of the high molecular weight brain MAPs, MAP 1C. It was determined to be structurally equivalent to ciliary and flagellar dynein, and to produce force toward the minus ends of microtubules, opposite to kinesin.


1968 ◽  
Vol 108 (4) ◽  
pp. 641-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Polson ◽  
W. Katz

1. The preparation of tanned gelatin spheres and granules from high-molecular-weight gelatin is described. This material is comparatively hard, giving high flow rates, is insoluble in water at temperatures between 0° and 100° and is resistant to digestion by trypsin and chymotrypsin. The high-molecular-weight fraction of gelatin was prepared by precipitation with polyethylene glycol, and the spheres and granules prepared from this fraction were hardened and insolubilized by tanning with either formalin or chromium salts or both. 2. The spheres and granules were used successfully for the separation of protein molecules and other protein-aceous materials ranging in molecular weight from 200 to greater than 6000000. This gel exclusion material has several properties superior to those of other products used for similar purposes. Further, it was noticed that the porosity of the spheres differed considerably from that of the granules.


1968 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. E. Kidder ◽  
M. J. Manners ◽  
M. R. McCrea ◽  
A. D. Osborne

1. Diets containing various sugar mixtures together with polyethylene glycol of high molecular weight as a marker were fed to pigs 1, 2 and 3 weeks old. The piglets were slaughtered 2.5 h later, and the ratio of sugar to marker was determined in the contents of the alimentary tract as far as the caecum.2. The greatest fall was found in the first part of the small intestine.3. Glucose had always disappeared by the third quarter of the small intestine.4. Xylose and fructose disappeared more slowly, especially in the younger pigs, but were usually absent from the contents of the last quarter of the small intestine.5. Sucrose was removed far less completely, and the ratio of sucrose to marker frequently did not decrease along the second half of the small intestine. Sucrose was removed much less efficiently when it formed 15% of the diet than when it formed only 5%, and much less efficiently by the younger than by the older pigs.


1983 ◽  
Vol 96 (5) ◽  
pp. 1298-1305 ◽  
Author(s):  
D B Murphy ◽  
R R Hiebsch ◽  
K T Wallis

Microtubule protein purified from brain tissue by cycles of in vitro assembly-disassembly contains ATPase activity that has been postulated to be associated with microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) and therefore significant for studies of microtubule-dependent motility. In this paper we demonstrate that greater than 90% of the ATPase activity is particulate in nature and may be derived from contaminating membrane vesicles. We also show that the MAPs (MAP-1, MAP-2, and tau factors) and other high molecular weight polypeptides do not contain significant amounts of ATPase activity. These findings do not support the concept of "brain dynein" or of MAPs with ATPase activity.


1977 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. A. Rickard ◽  
T. Exner ◽  
H. Kronenberg

Gel filtration of human plasma cryoprecipitate on Sepharose 2B indicated the molecular weight of factor VIII coagulant activity (VIIIc) to be significantly greater than that found in antihaemophilic concentrate. Polyethylene glycol at 3% concentration precipitated approximately half of the VIIIc from cryoprecipitate. This activity eluted as high molecular weight material on gel filtration. The addition of more polyethylene glycol to a concentration of 8% precipitated most of the remaining VIIIc from cryoprecipitate. This activity appeared to be of significantly lower molecular weight, approximately corresponding in elution volume to that observed for antihaemophilic concentrate. The possibility that an antibody to VIIIc generated in a patient treated with cryoprecipitate might be directed against the higher molecular weight form of factor VIII was investigated. However, no significant differences between the higher and lower molecular weight forms of factor VIII either in stability or in reactivity with human antibody to factor VIII were found.


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