Non-Canonical Functions of the Tubulin Meshwork in the Regulation of the Nuclear Architecture

The nuclear architecture describes the organization of the various compartments in the nucleus of eukaryotic cells, where a plethora of processes such as nucleocytoplasmic transport, gene expression, and assembly of ribosomal subunits occur in a dynamic manner. During the different phases of the cell cycle, in post-mitotic cells and after oncogenic transformation, rearrangements of the nuclear architecture take place, and, among other things, these alterations result in reorganization of the chromatin and changes in gene expression. A member of the tubulin family, tubulin, was first identified as part of a multiprotein complex that allows nucleation of microtubules. However, more than a decade ago, tubulin was also characterized as a nuclear protein that modulates several crucial processes that affect the architecture of the nucleus. This review presents the latest knowledge regarding changes that arise in the nuclear architecture of healthy cells and under pathological conditions and, more specifically, considers the particular involvement of tubulin in the modulation of the biology of the nuclear compartment.


Introduction
The constituents of an organism are determined by the inherited DNA, which is passed from parent to offspring. While the chromosomal DNA in prokaryotes is membraneless, in eukaryotes, the DNA is divided up into several chromosomes and separated from the rest of the cell by a double bilayer of phospholipids, forming two distinct DNA-containing compartments: the nucleus and the mitochondria [1,2]. The mitochondrial (mt)DNA are small circular chromosomes that are organized into nucleoprotein structures and encode for genes that are essential for normal mitochondrial function. This implies that the vast majority of the approximately 3 m long human DNA (3.2 Gb [3]) is compacted in the nucleus in an orderly manner by histone and non-histone proteins that fold the flexible DNA molecule into a chromatin fiber. Additional chemical modifications of the histone proteins cause higher-order compaction of the chromatin [4] and assist in keeping DNA accessible for the maintenance of a controlled gene expression.
For the rapid transmission of environmental signals into a tissue response, spatial organization of the chromatin and gene expression are affected by environmental changes. To this end, in the cytoplasm of a metazoan cell, cytoskeletal elements, such as actin polymers, intermediate filaments, and microtubules, are interlinked and anchored to networks of filaments in the nucleus (nucleoskeleton) such as lamin intermediate filaments [5]. The nucleoskeleton together with the chromatin constitutes the nuclear architecture, which is crucial for maintaining the different appearances of the nuclear compartments of differentiated cells such as granulocytes, megakaryocytes, and fibroblasts [6]. Modifications of the nuclear architecture occur as part of physiological processes such as cell differentiation [6], as well as due to a wide range of pathologies such as cancer [7] and respectively [20]. Changes in the nuclear shape occur following mutations of LMNA [21,22] or knockdown of lamin B1 [23]. Lamin B provides elastic properties, supporting nuclear envelope deformation, whereas LaminA and C determine the stiffness of the cell nucleus [24,25].

Figure 1.
The tubulin meshwork interacts with cellular components that affect the nuclear architecture. The meshwork is composed of centrosomes, tubules, and strings. A tubule consists of a tubulin ring complex (TURC), and pericentrin and can lie close to the outer nuclear membrane (ONM). Hypothetical representation of how strings connect cytosolic organelles (centrosome, mitochondria) and cytoskeletal elements (microtubules, actin and tubules) with the nuclear compartment. In the nucleus, tubulin interacts with laminB [13] (lamina), the nucleoporin Embryonic Large molecule derived from Yolk Sac (ELYS), which is part of the nuclear pore complex (NPC) [26], the inner nuclear membrane (INM) protein Samp1 [27], the chromatin associated proteins Rad51 [28] and C53 [29], and the transcription factor E2F1 [30]. The black arrows indicate the positions of the fibrillar centre (FC), granular centre (GC), and dense fibrillar component (DFC) in the nucleolus. The magenta lines indicate inhibition.

Force balance between cytoskeleton and nucleoskeleton
Outside the nucleus, cytoplasmic filaments are connected to the nuclear lamina through the LInker of Nucleo and cytoskeleton complexes (LINCs), which act as protein bridges that connect the cytoskeleton with the nucleoskeleton [31]. LINCs are composed of two families of interacting transmembrane proteins: Sad1 Unc- 84  The force balance created by the link between lamin proteins and the cytoskeleton through the LINCs is altered in various laminopathies such as Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS) [39,40]. HGPS is the consequence of the accumulation of a lamina A mutant isoform termed progerin, which results in an abnormal nuclear morphology driven by the microtubule network [40]. In Drosophila embryos, polymerization of cytosolic microtubules in bundles caused deformations of the NE and affects the dynamics of chromatin [41]. Thus, the cytoplasm, the LINCs, the NE, the NPCs, and the nuclear lamina are tightly associated, and modulation of one of these components alters the force balance, causing changes in the nuclear architecture.

Nuclear bodies
Nuclear chromatin is further compartmentalized in membraneless nuclear domains known as the Nuclear Bodies (NBs) [42]. The absence of lipid boundaries delineating a NB supports the view that the appearance and the structural maintenance of the NBs is the result of self-association properties of the components in the NB. NBs, such as nucleolus, Cajal bodies, and promyelocytic leukemia protein (PML) bodies, are specialized to perform specific nuclear processes, and their structures are maintained by protein-RNA interactions. The size, shape, and number of NB´s varies depending on the cell type and tissue and may change in response to cellular conditions. For example, nucleoli are formed at the end of mitosis around ribosomal (r) DNA repeats, named Nucleolar Organization Centres (NOR), on multiple chromosomes that cluster in response to transcriptional activity of these genes [43,44]. The nucleolus harbors a tripartite architecture with three distinct areas: the inner part of the nucleolus is called the Fibrillar Centre (FC), the outer is the Granular Centre (GC), and inbetween them is the Dense Fibrillar Component (DFC) [45]. The main function of a nucleolus is to assemble the transcription and processing machineries that are responsible for generating ribosome subunits. Transcription of rRNA mediated by RNA Polymerase I occurs at the interface of the FC and DFC, whereas maturation and association of rRNA with proteins to form premature ribosomal subunits occur within both the GC and DFC [45]. The number of nucleoli changes in different tissues and cell types, as well as during cell proliferation [46,47].

Show me your nuclear architecture and I will tell you who you are
The dynamic interactions between cytoskeletons and the NE with the NPC inside it and the lamina below in connection with the cytoskeleton through LINCs as well as the chromatin and chromatinassociated RNA and proteins included in NBs influence the nuclear architecture depending on the activity of a cell and its environment. This complex balance leads to the varying appearance of the nuclear compartment in different cell types. For example, the fusiform nucleus of smooth muscle is adapted to facilitate muscle contraction. Other examples are the lobed nuclei in leukocytes, which assist with the migratory behaviour of these immune cells, and the condensed nucleus in sperm, which aids in their swimming efficiency [6]. The nuclear architecture of cells is also altered during disease development, and the aberrant changes in the nuclear morphology have been used for decades as a diagnostic tool. One of such tool is the Papanicolaou (PAP) smear test, which is based on aberrant changes in the morphology of neoplastic cells and is used by pathologists to diagnosed cervical cancer [48].

The organization of the nucleus influences gene expression
In situ hybridization and chromosome painting techniques have revealed that the nuclear chromatin is organized in chromosome territories that occupy well defined nuclear regions, establishing spatial patterns [49]. There is a tendency for small or gene-rich chromosomes to be located towards the interior, whereas larger or gene-poor chromosomes are positioned next to the nuclear periphery [50]. This organization results in the positioning of genes in the nuclear interior, for example, NBs are found in the interchromatin region of the nuclei, whereas tightly packed chromatin, known as heterochromatin, which plays an important roles in nuclear architecture and gene silencing, is either randomly distributed or localized near the nuclear periphery [51][52][53]. This spatial pattern is partially kept by the lamina, as demonstrated by an analysis of LMNA mutant mice that had lost the expression of Lamin A and Lamin C. In these mice, cells had misshaped nuclei, and the repartition of heterochromatin foci next to the INM was also altered [21,22]. Work in human fibroblasts [54] and drosophila melanogaster cells [55] confirmed that lamins interact with specific lamin-associated DNA domains (LAD) [56], which are regions with a low density of genes, as reflected by the presence of low amounts of two markers for active transcription: RNA polymerase II, and methylated histone 3 at lysine 4 [54,55]. The anchoring of chromosomes with the nuclear envelope provides a supporting platform for the chromosomes. Chromosome-NE interactions affect the degree of chromatin movements, resulting in a plastic cell nucleus with more dynamic chromatin in stem cells, and a stiffer and lineage-specific chromosome arrangements in differentiated cells [57-59].
Next to INM and the lamina meshwork, around NPCs there exists a gene-transcription-prone environment, known as euchromatin, which is partially maintained through the functions of one of the components of the NPC nuclear basket (NB): the protein Translocated Promoter Region (TPR) [60]. This microenvironment allows, for example, the recruitment of the transcription factor avian Myelocytomatosis viral oncogene homolog (MYC) to the NB, which ensures the formation of active transcription complexes that facilitate both proliferation and migration [61]. In this way, genes involved in specific transcription pathways are spatially close to each other and to the transcriptional and post-translational machinery [62]. During oncogenic-induced senescence, TPR mediates the formation of the Senescence Associated Heterochromatin Foci (SAHF), which delocalizes peripheral heterochromatin to inner parts of the nucleus [63].
Alterations in the organization of chromosomes and of the nuclear morphology are associated with tumour progression. Specific chromosomal translocations increase the amount of heterochromatin and alter the nuclear lamina, contributing to the formation of misshaped nuclei [64]. The new genomic rearrangements can create proto-oncogenic gene clusters that are transcriptionally active [65]. Also, the chromatin organization of nuclear bodies is altered, and NBs become larger and numerous [7].

During differentiation
Environmental mechanical, chemical, and biological cues trigger cell differentiation. These extracellular signals are transmitted by the cytoskeleton into the nuclear compartment, resulting in changes in gene expression. Cytoskeleton networks provide the mechanical support for the cytosolic transmission of the signal but can also transmit force, which affects the nuclear architecture through LINCs. Major changes in the cytoskeleton occur during the transition from stem cells to differentiated offprints, and these changes may facilitate differentiation.
Actin and microtubules are highly dynamic cytoskeletons that can rapidly change after a signal is initiated. Indeed, during mesenchymal stem cell differentiation, increased numbers of cytosolic stress fibres formed from actin promote osteoblastic differentiation, whereas disruption of actin polymerization with small molecule inhibitors or actin-myosin (a motor protein) interactions favoured adipogenic differentiation [66][67][68]. Actin is also present in the nucleus, where it regulates nuclear processes like transcriptional regulation and chromatin remodelling, leading to the differentiation and development of mesenchymal stem cells and epidermal progenitors [69]. Cellular differentiation also causes the reorganization of microtubules. In eukaryotic cells, a microtubule usually consists of 13 laterally associated protofilaments that form hollow tubes in the cytoplasm, axons, and mitotic spindles [6]. Each protofilament is made up of -and -tubulin heterodimers. Microtubules are polar structures, and a large number of microtubule-associated proteins regulate the dynamic behaviour of the plus and minus ends. In cells, a new microtubule nucleates from the minus end on a complex formed of tubulin and various tubulin complex proteins (GCPs); this is known as the tubulin ring complex (TURC). The TURC-microtubule interactions can remain after the microtubule is formed and can both cap the minus ends of noncentrosomal microtubules or anchor microtubules to microtubule-organizing centres (MTOC; centrosomes in animal cells and spindle pole bodies in fungi) [70,71]. TURCs are enriched at the centrosome, and these membraneless organelles are specialized to ensure a higher rate of microtubule polymerisation in proliferative cells [72]. However, differentiation reorganizes microtubules from centrosomal into non-centrosomal microtubules arrays, and this altered organization causes, for example, during granulopoiesis, the interaction between microtubules and the NE to influence the nuclear shape by mediating nuclear lobulation [73].

Figure 2.
Chromosomes, centrosomes, tubules, and strings are connected and facilitate the formation of chromatin domains (yellow dashed line). Structured illumination microscopy images of two fixed U2OS cells show the localization of endogenous tubulin with an anti-tubulin (Tub), lamina with the anti-laminB (lmB; a marker of the nuclear membrane) antibody, and DNA with DAPI in U2OS cells in the interphase. Sequential confocal images (6 stacks per cell) were collected at 0.2 μm intervals to enable a comparison of the network of fibers. White arrowheads and arrows show tubules and strings, respectively, and yellow arrows indicate the centrosomes. White boxes show the magnified areas displayed in the insets. The scale bar is 10 m. The yellow boxes show colocalized pixel maps (CM) of the red (R), green (G), and blue (B) channels of the magnified areas illustrated in the inset. Grey areas in the maps denote pixels colocalized between channels. The cartoon represents interactions between tubules, strings, and centrosomes at the nuclear envelope, which act as a protein scaffold for the formation of chromatin domains.
Alterations in the nuclear architecture may result in differentiation into a specific lineage or in the development of pathologies due to, for instance, modification of lamin functions or an altered nucleocytoplasmic transport. Large scale mapping of the interaction of nuclear lamina with chromatin demonstrates the dynamic changes in the localisation and geography of the chromatin in the nucleus during different stages of differentiation [74,75]. Changes in the expression of nucleoplasmic proteins in NPCs, such as Nup153, contribute to the maintenance of pluripotency by repressing the expression of genes necessary for cellular differentiation in embryonic stem cells, independently of the cargo [76]. Nup153 interacts with transcription factors such as Sox2 [77] or with proteins such as the Polycomb Repressive Complexes (PRC1) [76], and depletion of Nup153 increases the expression of genes necessary for the differentiation of Neural Stem Cells into neuronal and glial cells [77]. In this way, Nup153 modulates gene expression and thereby forms a pluripotency/differentiation switch that affects the architecture of the chromatin.
The complex balance between cell proliferation and differentiation drives commitment into a lineage while ending cell proliferation. Thus, impeded lineage differentiation may result in cell proliferation and cancer, and these changes are reflected in the morphology and architecture of cells [78,79]. The degree of differentiation in a tumour is used to distinguish malignant from benign tumours, and it is a central aspect in the histopathological classification of solid tumours [80].

 The tubulin meshwork
The compartmentalization of eukaryotic cells into several organelles creates the need for structure, communication and transport between compartments. In the cytoplasm and nucleus, three main families of structures ensure these functions-actin filaments, intermediate filaments, and microtubules-and the LINCs are one of the linking structures between compartments [81]. In addition, the tubulin meshwork establishes a connection between the cytoplasmic and nuclear compartments [10,13,82].

Tubulins
Tubulin is part of a family of GTPases called the tubulins, which are involved in shaping the architecture of the human centrosome [83]. In humans, there are five known tubulin isoforms, αtubulin, βtubulin, tubulin, δtubulin, and εtubulin [84], of which only α-, β-, and -tubulins are ubiquitous. Multiple genes encode for α-and for β-tubulin, but the number of genes encoding tubulin ranges from one to three, with two genes found in mammals and up to three genes found in flowering plants (http://genome.ucsc.edu/) [85]. Studies of human U2OS osteosarcoma cells and murine NIH3T3 embryonic fibroblasts revealed that in the tubulin family, tubulin is the only member that contains an NLS [86] and a helix-loop-helix DNA-binding motif on the C terminus [87]. In humans, two proteins, tubulin1 and tubulin2, are encoded by two genes: TUBG1 and TUBG2. Tubulin1 is a ubiquitously expressed protein, whereas tubulin2 is highly expressed in the brain [88]. Tubulin1 and tubulin2 proteins exhibit an amino acid level identity of 97%, and the main differences in the protein sequence are localised to the DNA binding domain at the C-terminus of the protein [10,30].

The dynamics of the tubulin meshwork
Cellular tubulin has been described as being associated with all of the following compartments: the nucleus, the Golgi, the endoplasmic reticulum, the endosomes, the mitochondria, and the centrosomes [27,28,82,[89][90][91][98][99][100]. Due to its self-polymerizing features, tubulin produced by bacteria assembles in vitro strings that support the formation of lamin B3 protofilaments [13].
During cell division, the inherited centrosome and genome duplicate synchronously in the Sphase. At the onset of mitosis, the two centrosomes ensure the assembly of a bipolar mitotic spindle and the strict segregation of sister chromatids between offspring cells, resulting in two cells with one centrosome and one genome set each. During nuclear formation in mammalian cell lines and X. laevis egg extracts, strings establish a nuclear protein boundary around chromatin that connects the cytoplasm and the nuclear compartment together throughout interphase (Figure 1) [13]. This chromatin-associated string boundary serves as a supporting scaffold for the formation of a nuclear envelope around chromatin by facilitating the nucleation of lamin B1 during nuclear formation. Moreover, at the nuclear envelope, tubulin is associated with Ran and with nuclear pore proteins ( Figure 1) [13,26,101,102]. In the nuclear compartment, mass spectrometry analyses of purified fractions of human nucleoli identified tubulin at that location together with nucleolin, the most abundant RNA-binding protein at that site ( Figure 1) [29,100]. At the G1/S transition, the phosphorylation of tubulin on Ser 131 and Ser 385 regulates the recruitment of this protein to the nascent centriole, where it enables centrosome replication and also promotes the accumulation of tubulin in the nucleus [28, 86,98,[103][104][105][106][107]. In human U2OS osteosarcoma cells, mutations in the GTP/magnesium-interacting residue Cys 13 of tubulin are cytotoxic [12,82,108,109], and treatment with either of the tubulin GTPase binding domain inhibitors citral dimethyl acetyl (CDA) and dimethyl fumarate (DMF,) disassembles tubules [12,97]. These observations strongly suggest that the GTPase domain of tubulin is essential for the dynamics of the tubulin meshwork. The "where" and "when" characteristics of the self-polymerizing ability of tubulin are most likely regulated by GTP acting together with phosphorylation-dependent changes in the conformation of tubulin.

The tubulin meshwork and gene transcription
In a genetic screen to identify proteins required for the proper functioning of homeotic genes in drosophila melanogaster, mutations in the brahma (brm) gene, a gene product related to the chromatin remodelling complex SWI/SNF, showed a genetic interaction with Tub23C (tubulin1) mutations [110], suggesting a role of tubulin1 in transcription. In this context, tubulin interacts with the transcription factor family E2 promoter-binding factor (E2F) in animals and plants (Figure 1) [30, 111,112]. Indeed, nuclear tubulin was found to bind to the DNA on the same DNA binding motif as E2F, leading to the view that the tumor suppressor retinoblastoma (RB1) and tubulin proteins complement each other in the regulation of gene expression [103]. The RB1/tubulin signal network governs E2Fs, whose transcriptional activities induce the expression of the target genes that are indispensable for centrosome duplication and DNA replication [113]. Interestingly, besides interacting with E2Fs, RB1 can recruit remodeling factors, including histone deacetylases, members of the chromatin remodeling complex SWI/SNF, and DNA methyltransferase, aiding in the modification of the structure and organization of chromatin [114][115][116]. Altogether, these data indicate that tubulin may be involved in the recruitment of DNA-remodeling factors.
In the nucleoli, electronic microscopy experiments, performed by Hořejší and colleagues [29], showed that nucleolar tubulin is present in the GC, where RNA transcription takes place. It was also shown that, at that position, tubulin is localized with the tumor suppressor C53, and this interaction is necessary for modulating the activity of C53 after treatment with DNA-damaging compounds, suggesting that the activity of tubulin is necessary for DNA repair. In line with this assumption, tubulin associates with Rad51, BRCA1, p53, Chk2, and ATR, which are proteins that are involved in checkpoint activation and DNA repair [28,105,117-123].

The tubulin meshwork and nuclear architecture
Depletion of tubulin in Xenopus laevis egg extracts was shown to impaired nuclear membrane formation [13]. Furthermore, live imaging of cells expressing tubulin1 mutants, showed that impairment of the string boundary around chromatin led to the formation of chromatin empty nuclear-like structures, which collapsed into cytosolic lamin aggregates [13]. Moreover, in A. thaliana, tubulin was found to be colocalized with SUN1 in the INM (Figure 1) [37]. It is worth noting that at the INM, both SUN1 and tubulin interact with Samp1 and the nuclear lamina ( Figure 1) [27,124]. Depletion of Samp1 impairs the proper recruitment of tubulin to the mitotic spindle, revealing an important link between the interaction of nuclear proteins with tubulin for the completion of cell division [27]. In the NE, tubulin interacts with Mel-28/ELYS (Figure 1) [26], a nucleoporin protein whose depletion impairs the proper formation of the NPC due to the inefficient recruitment of the nucleoporin complex Nup107-160 [125].
The fact that the PCM and strings are important sites that affects the nucleation and dynamics of microtubules, actin filaments, and intermediate filaments [13,126,127], suggests that strings may function as a nucleating platform. With this in mind, the large number of strings associated with cellular membranes may support those membranes and provide a nucleating platform for cytoskeleton elements such as actin, microtubules, or lamins, allowing them to mold and transmit signals into different cellular compartments ( Figure 1). Accordingly, the interaction of TURC with the Golgi membrane-linked GMAP-210 protein regulates the proper positioning and biogenesis of the Golgi apparatus [91]. Also, tubulin is associated with endosomes [89], and it is an important mitochondrial infrastructure that connects the mtDNA with the nuclear chromatin ( Figure 1) [82,90]. Similarly, DNA-bound strings fasten the chromatin to the cytosol, and the site for the formation of a nuclear envelope around the chromatin is marked by the transition between cytosolic and nuclearassociated strings [13,26,101,102]. Accordingly, in U2OS cells, treatment with either CDA or DMF (to increase the endogenous levels of the metabolite fumarate [112,128]), disassembled strings, disrupting the association between mitochondria and the nuclear compartment [82]. Altogether, these data support the notion that tubulin is indispensable for structuring cellular compartments and coordinating the cytoplasm with the nuclear compartment.
Finally, in the cytoplasm, various tubules emanating from a centrosome can intertwine, forming macro-tubules, and the formation of those structures may influence the shape of the NE [10]. Altogether findings may suggest that cytosolic tubules, NE-inserted strings, and centrosomes work as structural docking sites for nuclear tubulin, resulting in the recruitment of chromatin-remodeling factors necessary for the remodeling of the genome (Figure 2).

The tubulin meshwork and cell differentiation
Among the TUBG genes, TUBG1 is the most ubiquitous and predominantly expressed gene among all species, whereas TUBG2 and TUBG3 are expressed in the human brain and flowering plants, respectively. This implies that the expression of TUBG2 and TUBG3 isoforms is restricted to differentiated cells [85,88]. Indeed, in mice, TUBG1 is expressed in the cortex during embryonic development, but the expression of TUBG2 increases as the brain develops [129]. Differentiated neuroblastoma cells also express higher levels of tubulin2, which further supports the idea that tubulin1 and tubulin2 have different functions during differentiation [90].
TUBG1 knock-out in mice is lethal. In contrast, TUBG2 knock-out mice are viable but exhibit some defects, including abnormalities in their circadian rhythm and painful stimulation [88]. In humans, mutations in the TUBG1 gene have been reported in children suffering of malformations related to cortical development [130,131]. Mice expressing the TUBG1 pathogenic variants suffer from cortex malformation and behavioural defects [129], proving the importance of tubulin proteins in the development of the central nervous system.
A study conducted in isolated hippocampal neurons has shown that during the process of maturation, the centrosomal expression of tubulin decreased after two weeks in culture [132]. Furthermore, in neurons, the nucleation of MTs does not rely on the centrosomal functions of tubulin [133,134]. In general, in differentiated cells, there is a loss of MTOC activity in the centrosome and in the novel acquisition of MTOC activity at other cellular sites. This is partially achieved by altering the centrosomal localization of various proteins present in the PCM, which can be achieved in various ways [135][136][137]. For example, during differentiation of the mammalian epidermis, there is a transcriptional downregulation of genes encoding centrosomal proteins [138], whereas in neurons, the alternative splicing of the centrosome-targeting domain of the centrosomal protein ninein results in ninein dispersal [139]. In Drosophila oocytes, the MTOC pushes the nucleus, causing the formation of a groove on the NE, which results in the migration of the nucleus and the establishment of a dorsalventral axis [140].

 tubulin in Cancer
As described above, tubulin is involved in many crucial cellular processes, including cell proliferation and differentiation, processes that are hijacked during oncogenesis [141]. At the genomic level, few mutations or amplifications of TUBG genes have been reported in patients with cancer. According to the cbioportal [142], TUBG1 and TUBG2 have been observed to be amplified in rare subtypes of breast cancer (2 cases of adenoid cystic adenocarcinoma, N= 16 patients) and prostate cancer (Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer, 19 cases, N= 114). Moreover, high levels of TUBG1 mRNA coincide with high levels of cell cycle-related genes in various tumour types, supporting the notion that tubulin1 expression is necessary for proliferation [30]. Accordingly, in various tumours (retinoblastoma, bladder, breast, colorectal and small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) tumors), tubulin and RB1 moderate each other's expression, and in the absence of tubulin and RB1, the uncontrolled transcriptional activity of E2Fs upregulates apoptotic genes, causing cell death [98,103]. The RB pathway is one of the most well described tumour suppressor pathways, and it is found to be highly mutated in a large spectrum of cancers [143,144]. Using the cbioportal [142], we found that among 31 subtypes of cancer, 30% exhibit defects in the RB pathway, with 7% of the patients exhibiting a loss of RB1 [143]. In brain tumours, high expression of tubulin is associated with high grade astrocytomas and glioblastomas, as compared to low grade astrocytomas, which exhibited weaker tubulin staining [145]. We can also point out that in medulloblastoma samples in areas of the tumours with high staining of the neuronal differentiation marker 3tubulin, the staining of tubulin is low, whereas in tumour areas with low staining of 3tubulin, there is a strong co-staining of tubulin and the proliferative marker proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) further confirming that there is a connection between tubulin expression and highly proliferative tumours [146].
It is tempting to speculate that the high expression of tubulin1 in proliferating cells may provide chromatin with more anchoring sites at the NE, which might assist in the maintenance of a plastic cell nucleus in proliferating cells, whereas, low expression of tubulin1 will result in a stiffer nucleus that favours lineage-specific chromosome arrangements in less aggressive tumour cells [57].
Due to the functions of tubulins in the biology of the cell and, specifically, due to their involvement in mitotic spindle formation, since the 1960s, MTs have been the target of various chemotherapies that impair microtubule function, cell division and angiogenesis and thus reduce tumour growth [147][148][149]. These compounds are widely prescribed as antineoplastic drugs for a broad range of malignancies including lung, breast, gastric, esophageal, bladder, and prostate cancers, Kaposi's sarcoma, and squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck [148]. However, the effectiveness of MT-targeting drugs for cancer therapy is limited by drug resistance and severe side effects in treated patients [148]. The target for MT-targeting drugs is / tubulins heterodimers, but more recently, MT-targeting drugs that inhibit tubulin have also been developed [150].
The recently discovered functions of tubulin in the nucleus and their inverse correlation with the tumour suppressor RB1, together with the high expression of tubulin in proliferating cells suggest that drugs specifically designed to inhibit the nuclear activity of tubulin may pave the way for chemotherapies that target a broad range of malignant tumours but have no impact on healthy cells. The natural product, citral, affects αβ-and tubulin activities [151], but the citral analog, CDA, specifically inhibits the nuclear activities of tubulin without affecting MT dynamics [112]. CDA has been proven to have an in vivo antitumorigenic activity. Furthermore, the drug dimethyl fumarate (DMF) also targets the nuclear activities of tubulin. DMF is an FDA-approved drug for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and psoriasis [152,153] and, in addition, has been reported to diminish melanoma growth and metastasis in animal models [154]. Thus, based on the functions of tubulin in the nucleus, the development of drugs that inhibit its nuclear activity may act specifically on tumour cells while sparing healthy tissue.

Conclusion and perspectives
Alterations in the nuclear cell morphology are signs of malignancy and are used as a diagnostic method for human cancers. The equilibrium between proliferation and differentiation is reflected in the appearance of the nucleus and is controlled by the balance established among expressed proteins in a cell. For example, the expression of different αtubulin and βtubulin genes in the different tissues provides fine tunes for the functions of microtubules [85].
Mutations in the TUBG genes have been found to cause brain malformations [155,156]. Thus, knowledge concerning the function of TUBG genes is a prerequisite for understanding the roles of tubulin in disease development. This review summarizes the known functions of tubulin in the regulation of cell morphology and differentiation. However, our knowledge on the functions of the different tubulin isoforms in controlling the nuclear architecture and cell differentiation is limited. Consequently, we need to gain more knowledge on the potential roles of the tubulin meshwork in health and disease, as this may aid in the discovery of novel therapeutic regimens that target the activities of tubulin.