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Microtubule Nucleation

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Abstract

Microtubule (MT) is an essential cytoskeleton assembled from α- and β-tubulin dimers in all eukaryotic cells. MT nucleation requires γ-tubulin-containing ring complex in both animal and plant cells. Although plant cells lack structurally defined MT-organizing centers such as centrosome in animal cells, various MT arrays are dynamically assembled and disassembled throughout the cell cycle. In this chapter, we review molecular mechanisms underlying MT nucleation in plant cells in comparison with those in animal cells. MT dependent-MT nucleation is a key concept to understand the variety of MT arrays.

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Correspondence to Takashi Hotta .

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Hotta, T., Hashimoto, T. (2014). Microtubule Nucleation. In: Assmann, S., Liu, B. (eds) Cell Biology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7881-2_16-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7881-2_16-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7881-2

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