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Molecular motors

Feeling the tension in every step

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 9, page 827 (2008)Cite this article

Kinesin is a dimer, with two catalytic motor domains that are connected through a stalk to the cargo-binding C-terminal tail. Each motor head is joined to the stalk by a flexible 'neck linker' that interacts with the motor. The neck linker drives the characteristic hand-over-hand 'stepping' movement of the two kinesin heads, a mechanism that ensures that both heads do not dissociate from the microtubules simultaneously. So how do the neck linkers coordinate processive movement?

...coordination between the motor domains is mediated by intramolecular tension...

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Yildiz, A. et al. Intramolecular strain coordinates kinesin stepping behavior along microtubules. Cell 134, 1030–1041 (2008)

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FURTHER READING

  1. Cochran, J.C. & Kull, F.J. Kinesin motors: no strain, no gain. Cell 134, 918–919 (2008)

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

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Authors
  1. Ekat Kritikou
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Kritikou, E. Feeling the tension in every step. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 9, 827 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm2532

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