Cell biology: Tubulin acetylation and cell motility.

Abstract

Although the protein tubulin is known to undergo several post-translational modifications that accumulate in stable but not dynamic microtubules inside cells, the function of these modifications is unknown. Hubbert et al.1 have shown that the enzyme HDAC6 (for histone deacetylase 6) reverses the post-translational acetylation of tubulin, and provide evidence that reducing tubulin acetylation enhances cell motility. They also suggest that decreasing tubulin acetylation reduces microtubule stability. However, we find that microtubule stabilization is not promoted by tubulin acetylation. We conclude that the alteration in cell motility observed by Hubbert et al. in cells overexpressing HDAC6 results not from changes in the formation of stable microtubules, but from alterations in the degree of tubulin acetylation.