Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Milestones
  • Published:

Milestone 14

Key instability

Microtubule dynamic instability

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 9, pages s14–s15 (2010)Cite this article

Previous studies had inferred the behaviour of individual microtubules from the biochemical properties of the bulk polymer. Mitchison and Kirschner used microtubule seeds incubated in solutions of various tubulin concentrations and, in addition to assessing these properties, they visualized the microtubules at fixed time points using microscopy. They observed that although the total polymer mass reached a plateau and remained constant, the microtubule population did not consist of a fixed number of microtubules of the same length. Instead, the number of microtubules decreased with time and their mean length increased. This demonstrated the coexistence of growing and shrinking microtubules, with the latter depolymerizing rapidly to provide new subunits for growth. Given that long microtubules eventually disappeared, they concluded that transitions between polymerization and depolymerization were probably rare. The authors coined the term 'dynamic instability' to describe these properties of microtubule polymerization.

This work was an instant classic, defining the dynamic properties of microtubules. Erika Holzbaur

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Mitchison, T. & Kirschner, M. Dynamic instability of microtubule growth. Nature 312, 237–242 (1984)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Murphy, D. B. & Borisy, G. G. Association of high-molecular-weight proteins with microtubules and their role in microtubule assembly in vitro. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 72, 2696–2700 (1975)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Vallee, R. B. A taxol-dependent procedure for the isolation of microtubules and microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs). J. Cell Biol. 92, 435–442 (1982)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Kirschner, M. & Mitchison, T. Beyond self-assembly: from microtubules to morphogenesis. Cell 45, 329–342 (1986)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Horio, T. & Hotani, H. Visualization of the dynamic instability of individual microtubules by dark-field microscopy. Nature 321, 605–607 (1986)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Associate Editor, Nature Cell Biology,

    Nathalie Le Bot

Authors
  1. Nathalie Le Bot
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Le Bot, N. Key instability. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 9 (Suppl 1), s14–s15 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm2584

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm2584

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing