Functional analysis of the microtubule-end vbinding protein CLASP2

Microtubules play an important role in many essential cell functions, such as maintenance of cell shape, intracellular transport, positioning of cell organelles and formation of the mitotic spindle during cell division. Microtubules perform many of their cellular tasks by changing their organization and stability in response to the needs of the cell. These processes are highly regulated, mainly by heterologous protein interactions between microtubules and specific regulatory proteins. Microtubule associated proteins (MAPs) play an essential role in controlling the dynamic instability of microtubules, thus controlling the state of their assembly and organization in cells. Particularly interesting is the group of MAPs that bind specifically to the plus ends of microtubules, where they can influence microtubule behavior and microtubule connections with other cellular structures. The best examples of such proteins are cytoplasmic linker proteins (CLIPs), as well as CLIPassociated proteins, or CLASPs. The aim of this thesis was to investigate role of CLASPs on microtubule behavior, in particular the involvement and in vivo function of CLASP 2.

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