Soon after microtubules were first described by electron microscopy, several investigators began suggesting that they were structural elements (Byers and Porter, 1964) because they were localized to sites where cells were changing their shape. In 1967, Lewis Tilney and Keith Porter, then at Harvard University, provided direct experimental evidence that microtubule polymerization was important for the development and maintenance of cell shape.
Axopodial spikes (left) owe their shape to an array of microtubules (right).
TILNEY
The Rockefeller University Press
2005
The Rockefeller University Press
2005
You do not currently have access to this content.