Studying Processive Molecular Motors Inside Live Cells

Processive molecular motors are the proteins that transport various kinds of cargos within a cell. All processive motors have two motor domains that let the protein proceed by taking steps. These motor proteins can carry their cargos for microns by taking hundreds of steps before detaching form the cytoskeletal tracks they walk on. In year 2003 it has been reported that the position of a single fluorescent dye attached to a molecular motor can be located within ∼ 1 nm (with half-a-second temporal resolution) in vitro. This new localization technique is named Fluorescence Imaging with One Nanometer Accuracy (FIONA). Yildiz et al. has shown that FIONA is precise enough to resolve the hand-over-hand steps of the processive molecular motors myosin V, kinesin and myosin VI, in the order. In our study we have searched for the possibilities of working on the same motor proteins in vivo, in other words, inside live cells. In order to overcome the complications of imaging in live organisms we have tracked the cargos (organelles carried by motors) instead of single molecule markers bound to the motors. Fluorescently labeled peroxisomes and dark pigment carrying melanosomes can be tracked in vivo with high spatial (∼1.5 nm) and temporal (∼1 msec) resolution by the derivatives of FIONA. This has enabled us to resolve the stepwise motion of motor proteins conventional kinesin, cytoplasmic dynein, kinesin II and myosin V.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Biophysics and Computational Biology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Kural, Comert

Contributors dc:contributor

• Selvin, Paul R.

• Biology, Cell

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3290283

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/85461