Abstract
In cytoplasm, protein γ-tubulin joins with various γ-tubulin complex proteins (GCPs) to form a heterotetramer γ-tubulin small complex (γ-TuSC) that can grow into a ring-shaped structure called the γ-tubulin ring complex (γ-TuRC). Both γ-TuSC and γ-TuRC are required for microtubule nucleation. Recent knowledge on γ-tubulin with regard to its cellular functions beyond participation in its creation of microtubules suggests that this protein forms a cellular meshwork. The present review summarizes the recognized functions of γ-tubulin and aims to unite the current views on this protein.
Highlights
Microtubules are highly enriched in a family of GTPases called the tubulins
The disparity in the number of genes encoding the various members of the tubulin family suggests that part of the fine tuning of the functions of α-tubulin and β-tubulin in microtubules is the result of the variation in the expression of different α- and β-tubulin genes in the different tissues, but, because there are fewer TUBG genes, γ-tubulin has to perform housekeeping functions that are more conserved among the species
Considering that interlinking between filaments is the key to the formation of a skeleton, we propose that cellular γ-tubulin forms a meshwork
Summary
Microtubules are highly enriched in a family of GTPases called the tubulins. In humans, there are five known tubulin isoforms: α-tubulin, β-tubulin, γ-tubulin, δ-tubulin, and ε-tubulin [1]. Γ-tubulin was regarded as a low-abundant protein when first discovered [17], today it is known that γ-tubulin is ubiquitously expressed in mammalian cells and appears in abundance in all cellular compartments [8,9,11,14,23–27]. The live imaging of TUBG sgRNA-expressing cells has demonstrated that when the levels of γ-tubulin decrease, cells divide normally for several days but subsequently they arrest in the interphase and die [14]. Cell division in TUBG-knockdown cells will continue as long as the inherited γ-tubulin pool is sufficient to allow the execution of the following interphase [14], whereas cell division in TUBG1−/− embryos will proceed as long as the inherited centrosome-associated γ-tubulin pool is adequate for the execution of the subsequent mitosis (Figure 1) [8]
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