PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Dean Lockhead AU - Erich M. Schwarz AU - Robert O'Hagan AU - Sebastian Bellotti AU - Michael Krieg AU - Maureen Barr AU - Alexander R. Dunn AU - Paul W. Sternberg AU - Miriam B Goodman TI - The tubulin repertoire of <em>C. elegans</em> sensory neurons and its context dependent role in process outgrowth AID - 10.1101/075879 DP - 2016 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 075879 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/09/21/075879.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/09/21/075879.full AB - Microtubules contribute to many cellular processes, including transport, signaling, and chromosome separation during cell division (Kapitein and Hoogenraad, 2015). They are comprised of αβ-tubulin heterodimers arranged into linear protofilaments and assembled into tubes. Eukaryotes express multiple tubulin isoforms (Gogonea et al., 1999), and there has been a longstanding debate as to whether the isoforms are redundant or perform specialized roles as part of a tubulin code (Fulton and Simpson, 1976). Here, we use the well-characterized touch receptor neurons (TRNs) of Caenorhabditis elegans to investigate this question, through genetic dissection of process outgrowth both in vivo and in vitro. With single-cell RNA-seq, we compare transcription profiles for TRNs with those of two other sensory neurons, and present evidence that each sensory neuron expresses a distinct palette of tubulin genes. In the TRNs, we analyze process outgrowth and show that four tubulins (tba-1, tba-2, tbb-1, and tbb-2) function partially or fully redundantly, while two others (mec-7 and mec-12) perform specialized, context-dependent roles. Our findings support a model in which sensory neurons express overlapping subsets of tubulin genes whose functional redundancy varies between cell types and in vivo and in vitro contexts.Highlight Summary Microtubules contribute to key cellular processes and are composed of αβ-tubulin heterodimers. Neurons in C. elegans express cell type-specific isoforms in addition to a shared repertoire and rely on tubulins for neurite outgrowth. Isoform function varies between in vivo and in vitro contexts.TRNsTouch Receptor NeuronsRNA-seqRNA sequencingRFGReceptive Field GapTPMTranscripts per MillionECMExtracellular Matrix,CVCoefficient of VariationConflict of Interest The authors declare no conflicting financial interests.