This assay is based on an adaptation of the original method of Shelanski et al. and Lee et al. (1,2), which demonstrated that light is scattered by microtubules to an extent that is proportional to the concentration of microtubule polymer. The resulting polymerization curve is representative of the three phases of microtubule polymerization, namely nucleation, growth and steady state equilibrium. See the About Tubulin page for more information. The assay is optimized for a 96-well format for low CVs and large sample number handling.
This kit contains "HTS tubulin", which is >97% pure (Cat. # HTS03). The same assay is also available with our highest purity tubulin (>99% pure, Cat. # T240) and is sold under Cat. # BK006P. BK004P provides an economical alternative to the higher purity BK006P assay and can be a good choice for large primary screens. Cytoskeleton, Inc. also provides a fluorescence based tubulin polymerization assay in miniaturized format (Cat. # BK011P), which is also ideal for high throughput screening.
