Question

Describe the 3 different polymers that make the cytoskeleton and explain their differences and similarities

Answer 1

Ans. The three different polymers that make the cytoskeleton are microtubules, microfilaments and intermediate filaments. They are protein filaments and involved in providing structure and shape of cells. They are widely prevalent and found in eukaryotic cells, prokaryotic cells and archaea.

Similarities are-

- All these filaments are able to grow rapidly ( formation of long filament by polymerisation of subunits) and disassembly ( depolymerisation of filament forming shorter filament).

-They take part in endocytosis ( taking up of extracellular materials).

-They have role in cell signalling.

-Cell movement is done by these cytoskeleton filaments.

-They perform movement of vesicles and organelles inside the cell.

Differences are-

- Diameter of microfilaments is 6nm. Diameter of intermediate filaments is 10nm and that of microtubule is 23nm. Hence, the largest is microtube, intermediate size is intermediate filaments and microfilament is the smallest

-Microfilaments have double helix structure. Intermediate filaments are dimers with two anti-parallel helices. Microtubules contain protofilaments containing tubulin comlexed with stathmin.