You are curious about the dynamic instability of microtubules and decide to join a lab that works on microtubule polymerization

Question

The people in the lab help you grow some microtubules in culture using conditions that allow you to watch individual microtubules under a microscope. You can see the microtubules growing and shrinking, as you expect. The professor who runs the lab gets in a new piece of equipment, a very fine laser beam that can be used to sever microtubules. She is very excited and wants to sever growing microtubules at their middle, using the laser beam.
A. Do you predict that the newly exposed microtubule plus ends will grow or shrink? Explain your answer.
B. What do you expect would happen to the newly exposed plus ends if you were to grow the microtubules in the presence of an analog of GTP that cannot be hydrolyzed, and you then severed the microtubules in the middle with a laser beam?

Answer 1

A. The newly exposed microtubule plus ends will most probably shrink if you sever the microtubules in the middle. This is because a microtubule grows by adding GTP-carrying subunits to the plus end. The GTP is hydrolyzed over time, leaving only a cap of GTP-carrying subunits at the plus end, with the remainder of the tubulin protofilament containing GDP-carrying subunits. Therefore, if you sever a growing microtubule in its middle, you will most probably create a plus end that contains GDP-carrying subunits. The GDP-carrying subunits are less tightly bound than the GTP-carrying subunits and will peel away from each other, causing depolymerization of the microtubule and shrinkage.
B. If you were to polymerize the microtubules in the presence of a nonhydrolyzable analog of GTP and you then severed the microtubules with a laser, the newly exposed plus end would contain a GTP cap and so would probably continue to grow.