Detyrosinated microtubules buckle and bear load in contracting cardiomyocytes

Abstract

INTRODUCTION-Along with its well-documented role as a track for cargo transport, the microtubule (MT) cytoskeleton is linked to diverse structural and signaling roles in the cardiac myocyte. MTs can facilitate the rapid transmission of mechanical signals to intracellular effectors, a process termed mechanotransduction. A proliferated MT network may also provide a mechanical resistance to cardiac contraction in certain disease states. Yet our understanding of how MTs resist compression and transmit mechanical signals has been impaired by a lack of direct observation and by the unpredictable effects of blunt pharmacological tools.

Advances in Imaging Plant Cell Dynamics

“…Airyscan CLSM is a very recent advancement of microscopy technologies, and its applications have been limited. By taking advantage of high-speed acquisition at improved resolution, it was possible to capture microtubulebuckling events during the contraction of cardiomyocytes at high resolution (Robison et al, 2016). Very recently, Airyscan CLSM was used to capture mitotic spindle and phragmoplast dynamics in Arabidopsis ktn1-2 mutants devoid of the KATANIN1 protein .…”

Microtubules in 3D cell motility

“…Therefore, microtubules can push membranes and resist compression (Elbaum et al, 1996;Fygenson et al, 1997a,b;Hotani and Miyamoto, 1990;Waterman-Storer et al, 1995). In fact, the buckling of microtubules in living cells demonstrates that they act as load-bearing fibers (Brangwynne et al, 2006;Robison et al, 2016;Wang et al, 2001). Because of these properties, a mechanical role for microtubules in cell tensegrity (see Box 2) deserves to be further investigated.…”

The tubulin code at a glance

“…Deregulation of the detyrosination-tyrosination cycle has been shown to influence tumorigenesis (Kato et al, 2004;Lafanechere et al, 1998;Mialhe et al, 2001;Sou cek et al, 2006), affect neuronal differentiation (Erck et al, 2005;Marcos et al, 2009) and impede proper chromosome segregation during mitosis (Barisic et al, 2015). Furthermore, detyrosination is an important regulator of cardiac muscle function (Kerr et al, 2015;Robison et al, 2016).…”