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Microtubule drugs: action, selectivity, and resistance across the kingdoms of life

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Abstract

Microtubule drugs such as paclitaxel, colchicine, vinblastine, trifluralin, or oryzalin form a chemically diverse group that has been reinforced by a large number of novel compounds over time. They all share the ability to change microtubule properties. The profound effects of disrupted microtubule systems on cell physiology can be used in research as well as anticancer treatment and agricultural weed control. The activity of microtubule drugs generally depends on their binding to α- and β-tubulin subunits. The microtubule drugs are often effective only in certain taxonomic groups, while other organisms remain resistant. Available information on the molecular basis of this selectivity is summarized. In addition to reviewing published data, we performed sequence data mining, searching for kingdom-specific signatures in plant, animal, fungal, and protozoan tubulin sequences. Our findings clearly correlate with known microtubule drug resistance determinants and add more amino acid positions with a putative effect on drug-tubulin interaction. The issue of microtubule network properties in plant cells producing microtubule drugs is also addressed.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by project UNCE204013. We would like to thank Dr. Vladimír Hampl, Dr. Marian Novotný, and Dr. Marie Macůrková for their helpful comments.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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  1. Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Viničná 7, 128 43, Prague 2, Czech Republic

    V. Dostál & L. Libusová

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  1. V. Dostál
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Dostál, V., Libusová, L. Microtubule drugs: action, selectivity, and resistance across the kingdoms of life. Protoplasma 251, 991–1005 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-014-0633-0

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