The emerging role of the tubulin code: From the tubulin molecule to neuronal function and disease

Across different cell types and tissues, microtubules are assembled from highly conserved dimers of α- and β-tubulin. Despite their highly similar structures, microtubules have functional heterogeneity, generated either by the expression of different tubulin genes, encoding distinct isotypes, or by posttranslational modifications of tubulin. This genetically encoded and posttranslational generated heterogeneity of tubulin—the “tubulin code”—has the potential to modulate microtubule structure, dynamics, and interactions with associated proteins. The tubulin code is therefore believed to regulate microtubule functions on a cellular and sub-cellular level. This review highlights the importance of the tubulin code for tubulin structure, as well as on microtubule dynamics and functions in neurons. It further summarizes recent developments in the understanding of mutations in tubulin genes, and how they are linked to neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders. The current advances in the knowledge of the tubulin code on the molecular and the functional level will certainly lead to a better understanding of how complex signaling events control microtubule functions, especially in cells of the nervous system. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.