It is important to remember that the plus end and minus end do not reflect the charge of the microtubules. While polymerization occurs at both the plus and minus ends, polymerization occurs much more quickly at the plus end. Additionally, the alpha subunits are exposed at the minus end while beta subunits are exposed at the plus end. I wonder if the alpha or beta subunits have any influence the speed of polymerization. We talked a little bit about the gamma tubulin in class. y-tubulin plays an important role in microtubule development since it initiates the nucleation/formation of microtubules. Since it initiates formation, the y-tubulin complex is located in the centrosome. It makes sense that it would be located in the centrosome since that is where spindle production occurs. If there is a mutation at this complex, microtubules will most likely not form properly and possibly lead to improper chromosome segregation.
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