Cooperative behavior of motor proteins

The cytoskeletal motor protein kinesin-1 (conventional kinesin) is the fast carrier for intracellular cargo transport along microtubules. So far most studies aimed at investigating the transport properties of individual motor molecules. However, the transport in cells usually involves the collective work of more than one motor. In the present work, we have studied the movement of beads as artificial loads/organelles pulled by several kinesin-1 motors in vitro. For a wide range of motor coverage of the beads and different bead (cargo) sizes the transport parameters walking distance or run length, velocity and force generation are measured. The results indicate that the transport parameters are influenced by the number of motors carrying the bead. While the transport velocity slightly decreases, an increase in the run length was measured and higher forces are determined, when more motors are involved. The effective number of motors pulling a bead is estimated by measuring the change in the hydrodynamic diameter of kinesin-coated beads using dynamic light scattering. The geometrical constraints imposed by the transport system have been taken into account. Thus, results for beads of different size and motor-surface coverage could be compared. In addition, run length-distributions obtained for the smallest bead size were matched to theoretically calculated distributions. The latter yielded an average number of pulling motors, which is in agreement with the effective motor numbers determined experimentally.

Level thesis:degree_level

thesis.doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher

Universität Potsdam

Year

2007

Author dc:creator

• Beeg, Janina

Contributors dc:contributor

• Scheller, Frieder W.

• Transport
• Weglänge
• Geschwindigkeit
• erzeugte Kraft
• Kinesin
• run length
• velocity
• generated force

Repository record source_url

https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/1455

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kobv.de-opus4-uni-potsdam:1455