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Life’s Smallest Motor
Cells Moves Like a Seesaw
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Life's smallest motor, a protein that shuttles cargo within cells and helps cells divide, does so by rocking up and down like a seesaw, according to research conducted by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Brandeis University. The researchers created high-resolution snapshots of a protein motor, called kinesin, as it walked along a microtubule, which are tube-shaped structures that form a cell's "skeleton." The result is the closest look yet at the structural changes kinesin proteins undergo as they ferry molecules within cells. To image kinesin at this critical stage, Ken Downing, a biophysicist with Berkeley Lab's Life Sciences Division, and Charles Sindelar, postdoctoral fellow now at Brandeis University, turned to cryoelectron microscopy to perform studies at extremely low temperatures.
The technology is used by structural biologists to image proteins and other molecules as they appear in real-world conditions, in this case a kinesin protein attached to a microtubule. In addition to further elucidating a key biological process, Downing and Sindelar's research may inform the development of disease-fighting drugs. One of kinesin's main jobs is moving chromosomes apart during cell division. Anything that blocks this process will lead to cell death, which is the basis of several cancer therapies such as taxol.
Original publication:
Sindelar CV and Downing KH.: An atomic-level mechanism for activation of the kinesin molecular motors, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 16. Feb 2010 [Epub ahead of print]
http://newscenter.lbl.gov
Keywords: Berkeley Lab's Life Sciences Division Brandeis University Charles Sindelar cryoelectron microscopy Ken Downing kinesin microtubule
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