Fig. 2.

Protofilament number mismatch between the seed and growth conditions affects microtubule dynamics. (A) A scheme illustrating microtubule growth from seeds in the presence of MSAs with the same or different protofilament number preference. MSA-binding zones are shown in green. (B, Left) A cartoon depicting kymographs corresponding to three types of microtubule dynamics observed in different conditions. Microtubule dynamics is defined as SRS dynamics if a microtubule regrows at least three times from the same site after undergoing catastrophes. A random rescue is a single rescue event after a depolymerization episode that is longer than 0.5 μm. Asterisks highlight catastrophe events in each condition. (B, Right) Quantification of microtubule dynamics observed in the indicated conditions; n = 75 microtubule seeds in all conditions; n = 3 independent experiments. (C and D) Representative kymographs showing microtubule dynamics in the indicated conditions. In matching conditions, short growth perturbation events followed by rapid rescues are highlighted (white asterisks highlight split comets and yellow asterisks highlight depolymerization events with length 0.2 to 0.5 μm). Stable rescue sites in mismatching conditions are highlighted by white stippled lines. A white arrow highlights a long depolymerization event (>0.5 μm); n = 3 independent experiments.