Monkey Kidney Cells with mEmerald-Tubulin and mCherry-Rab11a
The GTP molecule bound to the alpha-tubulin monomer can be thought of as a primary component of the tubulin heterodimer complex because it is physically unable to be hydrolyzed or exchanged, but remains consistently limited at the dimer interface. The nucleotide in the beta-tubulin monomer, in contrast, is exchangeable and can be hydrolyzed to create guanosine diphosphate (GDP) - an occasion that drastically impacts the dynamics of the microtubular network.
The African green monkey kidney fibroblast cells (CV-1 line) appearing in this selection of digital video sequences are shown expressing a mCherry-Rab11a fusion tag, while the intracellular microtubule network was visualized with mEmerald fused to tubulin. mCherry is a red member of the mFruit series of fluorescent proteins produced via the directed evolution of mRFP1. The green fluorescent protein mEmerald is a monomeric high-performance variant of EGFP, which is an enhanced Aequorea derivative.