ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

Cytoskeleton/Cytocomputer 97
Figure 5.12: Schematic representation of a microtubule associated protein (MAP
dark lines) facilitating assembly of a microtubule (MT). The longitudinal binding
retards dissociation of subunits and stabilizes the MT structure. With permission
from DeBrabander, DeMey, Geuens, Nuydens, Aerts, Willebrords and Moerman
(1985).
MTOC/centrioles are involved in orientation, shape, timing of division and
growth. With MT and other cytoskeletal structures, MTOC/centrioles determine
what cells do, when and how they do it, and what kind of cells they are! Are
MTOC the command centers of the cytoskeleton Chapter 3 described the
significant position of centrioles and MT in evolution, and Chapter 8 will describe
theories which explain centrioles’ enigmatic capabilities. These include
consideration (Bornens, 1979) that centrioles rotationally oscillate with a
gyroscopic inertia which senses and establishes cell orientation to neighbor cells,
tissue, environment, chemical gradient fields, gravity, and perhaps other factors.
Centrioles seem to be a relatively immobile anchor around which other
cytoskeletal elements move and are organized. Bornens suggests that centrioles
communicate with actin filament networks by propagating conformational effects,
and thus regulate cellular activities. Another centriole theory has been lodged by
Northwestern University’s Guenter Albrecht-Buehler (1977, 1985), who proposes
that centrioles detect signals (such as infra-red, ultrasound, microwave)
propagating linearly throughout the cytoplasm. Albrecht-Buehler has considered
the design principles for a nanoscale directional signal detector and finds that
centrioles are appropriate. Centrioles, or their future hybrids, may have interesting
technological applications (Chapter 10).
5.2.4 Microtubule Associated Proteins (MAPs)
The full range of MT functions is achieved by the actions of various proteins
which bind in precise fashions at specific tubulin dimers in MT lattices. These
microtubule associated proteins (MAPs) include electromechanical enzymes
which generate force and movement, communicative crossbridges to other
cytoskeletal filaments and organelles, MAPs which enhance MT assembly
(Figure 5.12) and a class of MAPs within neurons whose functions are not
understood.
In many cases, the attachment patterns of MAPs to MT lattice walls have a
precise geometrical configuration which appears related to the function of the
MAP-MT complex (Figures 5.13 thru 5.16). For example Allen (1979, 1985) and
colleagues showed that smooth passage of vesicles in axoplasmic transport