Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Production of Xenopus tropicalis Egg Extracts to Identify Microtubule-associated RNAs
Published on: June 27, 2013
Self-organization of microtubule asters induced in Xenopus egg extracts by GTP-bound Ran
T Ohba1, M Nakamura, H Nishitani
1Department of Molecular Biology, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyushu University, Maidashi Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan.
Abstract:
The nucleotide exchange activity of RCC1, the only known nucleotide exchange factor for Ran, a Ras-like small guanosine triphosphatase, was required for microtubule aster formation with or without demembranated sperm in Xenopus egg extracts arrested in meiosis II. Consistently, in the RCC1-depleted egg extracts, Ran guanosine triphosphate (RanGTP), but not Ran guanosine diphosphate (RanGDP), induced self-organization of microtubule asters, and the process required the activity of dynein. Thus, Ran was shown to regulate formation of the microtubule network.
Related Concept Videos
Microtubule Formation
Nuclear Export
NES are of three types- the canonical 10-residue long leucine-rich signal and other...
Directionality of Nuclear Transport
Mechanism of Lamellipodia Formation
Cell Motility through Blebbing
Blebbing Through the Matrix
In multicellular...
Cytoskeletal Coordination in Cell Migration

