MICROTUBULE-ORGANIZING CENTERS AND GAMMA-TUBULIN

The polar assembly of cellular microtubules is organized by microtubul e organizing centers (MTOCs). Eukaryotic cells across different specie s, and different cell types within single species, have morphologicall y diverse MTOCs, which have the common function of organizing microtub ule arrays by initiating microtubule assembly and anchoring microtubul es by their slow-growing 'minus' ends, thus ensuring that the rapidly growing 'plus' ends extend distally. The past few years have witnessed a variety of approaches aimed at defining the molecular components of the MTOC that are responsible for regulating microtubule assembly by defining molecules common to all MTOCs.