The tubulin repertoire of Caenorhabditis elegans sensory neurons and its context-dependent role in process outgrowth

Abstract

Microtubules contribute to many cellular processes, including transport, signaling, and chromosome separation during cell division. They comprise αβ-Tubulin heterodimers arranged into linear protofilaments and assembled into tubes. Eukaryotes express multiple tubulin isoforms, and there has been a longstanding debate as to whether the isoforms are redundant or perform specialized roles as part of a tubulin code. Here we use the well-characterized touch receptor neurons (TRNs) of Caenorhabditis elegans to investigate this question through genetic dissection of process outgrowth both in vivo and in vitro. With single-cell RNA-seq, we compare transcription profiles for TRNs with those of two ot..