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Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Self-Assembly of Microtubule Tactoids
Published on: June 23, 2022
Mica surface promotes the assembly of cytoskeletal proteins
Loic Hamon1, Dulal Panda, Philippe Savarin
1Laboratoire Structure-Activité des Biomolécules Normales et Pathologiques, INSERM/UEVE U829, Evry 91025 France. loic.hamon@univ-evry.fr
Abstract:
We report the surface-mediated polymerization of FtsZ protein, the prokaryote homologue of tubulin, by AFM. FtsZ protein can form filaments on mica whereas the bulk FtsZ concentration is orders of magnitude lower than the critical concentration. Surface polymerization is favored by a local increase in protein concentration and requires a high mobility of proteins on the surface. To generalize to other cytoskeleton protein, we also show that mica can initiate the formation of tubulin protofilaments. This study is of particular interest for studying cytoskeletal protein dynamics by AFM but also for the surface autoassembly of nanostructures.
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