Tubulin Alpha-8 Chain (TUBA8) Antibody – Rabbit Polyclonal

Function: Tubulin is the major constituent of microtubules. It binds two moles of GTP, one at an exchangeable site on the beta chain and one at a non-exchangeable site on the alpha chain.

Subunit structure: Dimer of alpha and beta chains.

Subcellular location: Cytoplasm › cytoskeleton.

Tissue specificity: Expressed at highest levels in the testis, followed by skeletal and heart muscle. Expressed at low levels in the developing brain. Ref.2

Developmental stage: At embryonic day (E) 13.5, expressed in the cortical preplate and cingulate cortex. By E15. 5, the strongest expression is seen in the cortical plate. By E18.5, cortical expression is most intense in the upper layers and subplate. There is strong expression in the areas CA1-3 of the hippocampus. At P0, cortical expression is strongest in the dense cortical plate and subplate. Hippocampal expression is more intense in areas CA1-3 than in the dentate gyrus. At P8, lamination is almost complete and cortical expression is strongest in layers II-III and V and the subplate. There is also expression in the mediodorsal nuclei of the thalamus, the mitral cell layer of the olfactory bulb, and the external granular layer, molecular layer, and internal granular cell layer of the cerebellum. Ref.2 Ref.8

Post-translational modification: Some glutamate residues at the C-terminus are either polyglutamylated or polyglycylated. These 2 modifications occur exclusively on glutamate residues and result in either polyglutamate or polyglycine chains on the gamma-carboxyl group. Glycylation is mainly limited to tubulin incorporated into axonemes (cilia and flagella) whereas glutamylation is prevalent in neuronal cells, centrioles, axonemes, and the mitotic spindle. Both modifications can coexist on the same protein on adjacent residues, and lowering polyglycylation levels increases polyglutamylation, and reciprocally. The precise function of such modifications is still unclear but they are regulate the assembly and dynamics of axonemal microtubules.

Miscellaneous: This tubulin does not have a C-terminal tyrosine.

Sequence similarities: Belongs to the tubulin family.