449: Molecular motors cooperate in moving cellular cargo

Molecular motors cooperate in moving cellular cargo, study shows:

Researchers using an extremely fast and accurate imaging technique have shed light on the tiny movements of molecular motors that shuttle material within living cells. The motors cooperate in a delicate choreography of steps, rather than engaging in the brute-force tug of war many scientists had imagined.

“We discovered that two molecular motors – dynein and kinesin – do not compete for control, even though they want to move the same cargo in opposite directions,” said Paul Selvin, a professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and corresponding author of a paper to appear in the journal Science, as part of the Science Express Web site, on April 7. “We also found that multiple motors can work in concert, producing more than 10 times the speed of individual motors measured outside the cell.”

Dynein and kinesin are biomolecular motors that haul cargo from one part of a cell to another. Dynein moves material from the cell membrane to the nucleus; kinesin moves material from the cell nucleus to the cell membrane. The little cargo transporters accomplish their task by stepping along filaments called microtubules.

Common descent explains the similarities in cellular structure. Evolutionary biologists will use the details of the structures to understand the evolution of microtubules.