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The Third Tubulin Pool

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Abstract

Tubulin normally undergoes a cycle of detyrosination/tyrosination on the carboxy terminus of its α-subunit and this results in subpopulations of tyrosinated tubulin and detyrosinated tubulin. Brain tubulin preparations also contain a third major tubulin subpopulation which is non-tyrosinatable. This review describes the purification and the structural characterization of non-tyrosinatable tubulin. This tubulin variant lacks a carboxyterminal glutamyl-tyrosine group on its α-subunit (Δ2-tubulin). Δ2-tubulin is generated from detyrosinated tubulin through an irreversible reaction. Δ2-tubulin accumulates in neurons and in stable microtubule assemblies. It also accumulates in some tumor cells due to the frequent loss of tubulin tyrosine ligase in such cells. Δ2-tubulin may be a useful marker of malignancy in human tumors.

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  1. Laboratoire du Cytosquelette, INSERM U366, DBMS, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique/Grenoble, 17 rue des Martyrs, 38054, Grenoble cedex 9, France

    Laurence Lafanechère & Didier Job

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  1. Laurence Lafanechère
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Lafanechère, L., Job, D. The Third Tubulin Pool. Neurochem Res 25, 11–18 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007575012904

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