Dynamic instability of microtubules from cold-living fishes.

The dynamic instability of microtubules free of microtubule-associated proteins from two genera of cold-living fishes was measured, by means of video-enhanced differential-interference-contrast microscopy, at temperatures near those of their habitats. Brain microtubules were isolated from the boreal Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua; habitat temperature approximately 2-15 degrees C) and from two austral Antarctic rockcods (Notothenia gibberifrons and N. coriiceps neglecta; habitat temperature approximately -1.8 to + 2 degrees C). Critical concentrations for polymerization of the fish tubulins were in the neighborhood of 1 mg/ml, consistent with high interdimer affinities. Rates of elongation and frequencies of growth-to-shortening transitions ("catastrophes") for fish microtubules were significantly smaller than those for mammalian microtubules. Slow dynamics is therefore an intrinsic property of these fish tubulins, presumably reflecting their adaptation to low temperatures. Two-dimensional electrophoresis showed striking differences between the isoform compositions of the cod and the rockcod tubulins, which suggests that the cold-adapted microtubule phenotypes of northern and southern fishes may have arisen independently.