Figure 2.

(a) Elastic network model of the MT. A whole MT is shown (left); MT geometry corresponds to the 13:3 MT B-lattice structure (2). The detail highlighted (circle, and zoomed on the right), shows two interacting tubulin dimers belonging to adjacent protofilaments. (Spheres) C_α-atoms. (Sticks) Bonds among the atoms, which are closer than the cutoff distance set equal to 1.2 nm. (b) Three main functional domains in the tubulin monomers: the Rossmann fold, the intermediate domain, and the C-terminal domain (52). Each domain is considered as a rigid block in the RTB approach.