Setting up roadblocks for kinesin-1: Mechanism for the selective speed control of cargo carrying microtubules

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Till Korten - , Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (Author)
  • Stefan Diez - , Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (Author)

Abstract

Motor-driven cytoskeletal filaments are versatile transport platforms for nanosized cargo in molecular sorting and nano-assembly devices. However, because cargo and motors share the filament lattice as a common substrate for their activity, it is important to understand the influence of cargo-loading on transport properties. By performing single-molecule stepping assays on biotinylated microtubules we found that individual kinesin-1 motors frequently stopped upon encounters with attached streptavidin molecules. Consequently, we attribute the deceleration of cargo-laden microtubules in gliding assays to an obstruction of kinesin-1 paths on the microtubule lattice rather than to 'frictional' cargo-surface interactions. We propose to apply this obstacle-caused slow-down of gliding microtubules in a novel molecular detection scheme: Using a mixture of two distinct microtubule populations that each bind a different kind of protein, the presence of these proteins can be detected via speed changes in the respective microtubule populations.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1441-1447
Number of pages7
JournalLab on a chip
Volume8
Issue number9
Publication statusPublished - 2008
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

External IDs

PubMed 18818797
ORCID /0000-0002-0750-8515/work/142235577