Prof. Eva Nogales
Title: Visualizing the interaction of microtubule with functional partners
Bio:
Dr. Nogales is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator; a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of California, Berkeley; and Senior Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She obtained her B.S. degree in physics from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain). She did her thesis work at the Synchrotron Radiation Source (U.K.), under the supervision of Joan Bordas, on the structural dynamics of tubulin assembly, earning a Ph.D. degree from the University of Keele. Her work in Kenneth Downing’s group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory involved the use of electron crystallography to determine the high-resolution structure of tubulin.
(cr: https://cryoem.berkeley.edu/people/eva-nogales/)
Abstract:
Microtubules are regulated by a myriad of microtubule associated proteins (MAPs) that can affect their dynamics and cellular organization. Among their functions, microtubules serve as freeways on which kinesin and dynein motors can walk carrying different cargos, and they form the mitotic spindle that engages with chromosomes via kinetochores. Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has proven critical to visualize the structure of microtubules and their interaction with many MAPs, motors, and kinetochore complexes. Furthermore, cryo-EM can contribute to our understanding of the complex interplay that multiple functional partners can have on the microtubule, as long as special image analysis is used to deal with such mixtures. We have developed an approach that is allowing us to characterize competition for the microtubule lattice, coexistence at distinct sites, or, in the most interesting cases, interactions between these factors on the microtubule, with important repercussions for our understanding of functional outcomes. I will illustrate different arrangements of several of MAPs, as well as MAP-motor pairs, and kinetochores complexes in my presentation
Keywords: cryo-EM, microtubules, maps, motor proteins, kinetochores
Host: Prof. Silvia Cavagnero