# ResearchInterplay between microtubule polymerases, γ-tubulin complexes and their receptors
**Source**: https://www.bio.uni-heidelberg.de/en/newsroom/interplay-between-microtubule-polymerases-g-tubulin-complexes-and-their-receptors
**Parent**: https://www.bio.uni-heidelberg.de/en/news
# Research Interplay between microtubule polymerases, γ-tubulin complexes and their receptors
## New structural insights
The faithful separation of chromosomes during cell division requires the *de novo* formation of microtubules in the correct place and time to form the mitotic spindle. The γ-ring tubulin complex (γ-TuRC) serves as a template for the nucleation of microtubules, but its assembly, subcellular localization and conformational activation require interaction with other factors, such as conserved receptor proteins and microtubule polymerases. In a collaboration between the groups of Elmar Schiebel, Matthias Mayer and Stefan Pfeffer (all ZMBH), the shared first authors Anjun Zheng, Bram Vermeulen and Martin Würtz used a combination of cryo-electron microscopy, biochemistry, cell biology and hydrogen-exchange mass-spectrometry to study the assembly and activation of the γ-TuRC from the yeast *Candida albicans*. Their work reveals how the receptor protein Spc72 assembles the γ-TuRC into a microtubule template conformationally primed for nucleation and sheds light on how the microtubule polymerase Stu2 is recruited to the complex to promote microtubule formation.
- [Group Pfeffer](https://www.zmbh.uni-heidelberg.de/Pfeffer/default.shtml)
- [Group Schiebel](https://www.zmbh.uni-heidelberg.de/Schiebel/default.shtml)
- [Group Mayer](https://www.zmbh.uni-heidelberg.de/Mayer/default.shtml)
Structure-inspired model for how several copies of the receptor protein Spc72 and the microtubule polymerase Stu2 promote the de novo formation of microtubules from alpha/beta-tubulin subunits on the γ-TuRC template.
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