Magnesium-induced self-association of calf brain tubulin. I. Stoichiometry.

The self-association of calf brain tubulin at pH 7.0 in the presence of magnesium ions has been examined by velocity sedimentation. The schlieren patterns were analyzed by methods described by Gilbert and by Cox. The observed process is best described in terms of a rapidly reversible progressive self-association of the tubulin dimer with identical chain elongation equilibrium constants, k, terminated by a ring-closing step, at degree of polymerization n = 26 +/- 2, with k26 greater than k. The end product of the polymerization reaction has a sedimentation coefficient s20,w0 k2 +/- 2 S. It is hydrodynamically equivalent to a closed ring structure observed in the electron microscope at identical conditions.