Anti-alpha Tubulin, clone 5M5

There are five tubulins in human cells: alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and epsilon. Tubulins are conserved across species. They form heterodimers, which multimerize to form a microtubule filament. An alpha and beta tubulin heterodimer is the basic structural unit of microtubules. The heterodimer does not come apart, once formed. The alpha and beta tubulins, which are each about 55 kDa MW, are homologous but not identical. Alpha, beta, and gamma tubulins have all been used as loading controls. Tubulin expression may vary according to resistance to antimicrobial and antimitotic drugs. Protein function: Tubulin is the major constituent of microtubules, a cylinder consisting of laterally associated linear protofilaments composed of alpha- and beta-tubulin heterodimers. Microtubules grow by the addition of GTP-tubulin dimers to the microtubule end, where a stabilizing cap forms. Below the cap, tubulin dimers are in GDP-bound state, owing to GTPase activity of alpha-tubulin. [The UniProt Consortium]