Pampaloni Francesco, Florin Ernst-Ludwig
Cell Biology and Biophysics Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Meyerhofstrasse 1, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
Trends Biotechnol. 2008 Jun;26(6):302-10. doi: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2008.03.002. Epub 2008 Apr 21.
Microtubules are self-assembling biological nanotubes that are essential for cell motility, cell division and intracellular trafficking. Microtubules have outstanding mechanical properties, combining high resilience and stiffness. Such a combination allows microtubules to accomplish multiple cellular functions and makes them interesting for material sciences. We review recent experiments that elucidate the relationship between molecular architecture and mechanics in microtubules and examine analogies and differences between microtubules and carbon nanotubes, which are their closest equivalent in nanotechnology. We suggest that a long-term goal in bionanotechnology should be mimicking the properties of microtubules and microtubule bundles to produce new functional nanomaterials.
微管是自组装生物纳米管，对细胞运动、细胞分裂和细胞内运输至关重要。微管具有出色的机械性能，兼具高弹性和硬度。这种组合使微管能够完成多种细胞功能，并使其在材料科学领域备受关注。我们回顾了近期阐明微管分子结构与力学之间关系的实验，并研究了微管与碳纳米管（它们在纳米技术中最相近的等效物）之间的异同。我们认为，生物纳米技术的一个长期目标应该是模仿微管和微管束的特性以生产新型功能纳米材料。
