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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Jun 19.
Published in final edited form as: Curr Biol. 2012 May 31;22(12):1066–1074. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.05.012

Figure 3. MEC-12 α-tubulin dimer homology model incorporated into a microtubule lattice.

Figure 3

Two adjacent MEC-12 monomers are colored in light and dark blue and all views are from the luminal side of the inter-protofilament interface. Key resides are shown in space-filling representation: αK40 (green); αE55 and αE90 (red); αK280 and αH283 (orange).

(A, B) αE55 can form an intra-monomer salt bridge with αK40 (A) or an inter-monomer salt bridge with H283 of the neighboring monomer (B).

(C) Following acetylation, αK40 can no longer form a salt bridge and the inter-monomer salt bridge between αE55 and αH283 is favored.

(D) Schematic of the proposed model for αK40 acetylation-mediated regulation of the protofilament lattice. See also Figure S3 and Movies S1–S6 for salt bridge stability probed by molecular dynamics simulations.