Sliding of STOP proteins on microtubules: a model system for diffusion-dependent microtubule motility.

STOP proteins, of 145 kD, act substoichiometrically to block end-wise disassembly of microtubules. STOPs bind to microtubules either during microtubule assembly or when added at steady state, and when binding to the polymers is apparently irreversible. They are not measurably lost from polymers under competition conditions, and there is no measurable exchange between polymers. Nonetheless, STOP proteins exhibit an extraordinary behavior: they "slide" laterally on the surface of the microtubule. Displacement is assayed by forming hybrid microtubules in which cold stable or cold labile region subunits are labeled. Displacement of STOPs on the polymer with time will cause labeled subunits of cold-stable regions to become increasingly cold labile in a manner reciprocal to cold stabilization of previously cold-labile subunits. Because equilibrium exchange of STOP proteins onto and off the polymers can be ruled out, the displacement of STOPs relative to subunits can only be explained by lateral diffusion or "sliding." Axonal transport and mitotic mechanisms were discussed as implications of such a lateral translocation mechanism for microtubule-dependent motility.