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Comment
. 2015 Aug 13;34(16):2114-6.
doi: 10.15252/embj.201592415. Epub 2015 Jul 17.

Optochemistry to control the microtubule cytoskeleton

Carsten Janke  1 , Michel O Steinmetz  2
Affiliations
Comment

Optochemistry to control the microtubule cytoskeleton

Carsten Janke et al. EMBO J. .

Abstract

Microtubule drugs have a wide range of applications in cell biology research as well as cancer therapy; however their application was so far limited to the treatment of entire cell populations and tissues. In a recent paper in Cell, Borowiak et al (2015) now describe a novel type of switchable microtubule drugs. The activity of their drugs, denoted as “photostatins”, can be switched on and off by violet and green light, respectively, which allows for the first time a precise spatial and temporal control of the microtubule cytoskeleton in single cells and tissues.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Colchicine-binding site in tubulin and switching of photostatin (A) Crystal structure of the complex formed between α/β-tubulin (ribbon representation) and colchicine (sphere representation) at 2.4 Å resolution (Prota et al, 2014). (B) Optical cis–trans switching of photostatin (PST-1). Only the active cis isomer is thought to bind to the colchicine site of tubulin (Borowiak et al, 2015).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

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