PhD defence: Structural Studies of Tubulin Modifying Enzymes

Microtubules are essential components of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton. They are subjected to a number of post-translational modifications, which increase their heterogeneity, leading to functional specializaton. The combination of the post-translational modifications, together with the diferential overexpression of tubulin isotypes, creates the tubulin code.

This thesis focuses on detyrosination, one of the post-translational modifications that occur on the C-terminal tail of α-tubulin. Using a combination of structural biology tools, including Small angle X-ray scattering and X-ray crystallography, and biochemical and biophysical assays, I present the structure and the mechanism of the two novel tubulin detyrosinating enzymes, which remained elusive for four decades, and were discovered by our collaborators.