  Microtubules (MTs) are important cytoskeletal structures, engaged in a number
of specific cellular activities, including vesicular traffic, cell
cyto-architecture and motility, cell division, and information processing
within neuronal processes. MTs have also been implicated in higher neuronal
functions, including memory, and the emergence of "consciousness". How MTs
handle and process electrical information, however, is heretofore unknown. Here
we show new electrodynamic properties of MTs. Isolated, taxol-stabilized
microtubules behave as bio-molecular transistors capable of amplifying
electrical information. Electrical amplification by MTs can lead to the
enhancement of dynamic information, and processivity in neurons can be
conceptualized as an "ionic-based" transistor, which may impact among other
known functions, neuronal computational capabilities.
