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Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Extracting Modified Microtubules from Mammalian Cells to Study Microtubule-Protein Complexes by Cryo-Electron Microscopy
Published on: March 3, 2023
Isolation of microtubules and microtubule proteins
J Avila1, H Soares, M L Fanarraga
1Centro de Biología Molecular, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, Madrid, Spain.
Abstract:
This unit describes various protocols for the isolation and purification of the main constituents of microtubules, chiefly alpha- and beta-tubulin, and the most significant microtubule associated proteins (MAPs), specifically MAP1A, MAP1B, MAP2, and tau. We include a classical isolation method for soluble tubulin heterodimer as the first basic purification protocol. In addition, we show how to analyze the tubulin and MAPs obtained after a phosphocellulose chromatography purification procedure. This unit also details a powerful and simple method to determine the native state of the purified tubulin based on one-dimensional electrophoresis under nondenaturing conditions (UNIT 6.5). The last protocol describes the application of a new technique that allows visualizing the quality of polymerized microtubules based on atomic force microscopy (AFM).
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