Detyrosination is a form of

posttranslational modification Post-translational modification (PTM) is the covalent and generally enzymatic modification of proteins following protein biosynthesis. This process occurs in the endoplasmic reticulum and the golgi apparatus. Proteins are synthesized by ribo ...

that occurs on alpha-

tubulin Tubulin in molecular biology can refer either to the tubulin protein superfamily of globular proteins, or one of the member proteins of that superfamily. α- and β-tubulins polymerize into microtubules, a major component of the eukaryotic cytoske ...

. It consists of the removal of the

C-terminal The C-terminus (also known as the carboxyl-terminus, carboxy-terminus, C-terminal tail, C-terminal end, or COOH-terminus) is the end of an amino acid chain (protein or polypeptide), terminated by a free carboxyl group (-COOH). When the protein is ...

tyrosine -Tyrosine or tyrosine (symbol Tyr or Y) or 4-hydroxyphenylalanine is one of the 20 standard amino acids that are used by cells to synthesize proteins. It is a non-essential amino acid with a polar side group. The word "tyrosine" is from the G ...

to expose a glutamate at the newly formed C-terminus. Tubulin polymers, called microtubules, that contain detyrosinated alpha-tubulin are usually referred to as ''Glu-microtubules'' while unmodified polymers are called ''Tyr-microtubules''. The detyrosynating activity was first identified in the late 1970s. It is a slow acting enzyme that uses polymeric tubulin as a substrate. As a result, only stabilized microtubules accumulate this particular modification. Tubulin detyrosination is reversed by the tubulin-tyrosine ligase, which acts only on alpha-tubulin monomer. Since the majority of microtubules are very dynamic, they do not contain much detyrosinated tubulin.

References

Vasohibins/SVBP are tubulin carboxypeptidases (TCPs) that regulate neuron differentiation. Aillaud C, Bosc C, Peris L, Bosson A, Heemeryck P, Van Dijk J, Le Friec J, Boulan B, Vossier F, Sanman LE, Syed S, Amara N, Couté Y, Lafanechère L, Denarier E, Delphin C, Pelletier L, Humbert S, Bogyo M, Andrieux A, Rogowski K, Moutin MJ. Science. 2017 Dec 15;358(6369):1448-1453. doi: 10.1126/science.aao4165. Epub 2017 Nov 16. PMID: 29146868 {{Protein primary structure Post-translational modification Protein structure

See also

References