Minimum requirements for the actin-like treadmilling motor system

Minimum requirements for the actin-like treadmilling motor system

Actin is one of the most abundant proteins in eukaryote cells, which forms a double stranded filament. The actin filament is not only a main component of the cytoskeleton, but also acts as a motor protein which moves toward one specific end, the barbed end, driven by polymerization at the barbed end and depolymerization at the other end, the pointed end, without any associated proteins. This mo...

Treadmilling of tubulin and actin.

Minimum requirements for motility of a processive motor protein

Motor proteins generally have a two-way coupling between the ATP hydrolysis site, the lever movement and the binding affinity for their track, which allows them to perform efficient stepping. Here we explore the minimal requirements for directed motility based on simpler schemes in which the binding/unbinding from the track is decoupled from the ATPase cycle. We show that a directed power strok...

MEK signalling tunes actin treadmilling for interstitial lymphocyte migration.

When lymphocytes follow chemotactic cues, they can adopt different migratory modes depending on the geometry and molecular composition of their extracellular environment. In this issue of The EMBO Journal, Klemke et al (2010) describe a novel Ras-dependent chemokine receptor signalling pathway that leads to activation of cofilin, which in turn amplifies actin turnover. This signalling module is...

Impact of motor molecules on the dynamics of treadmilling filaments.

We study a driven lattice gas model for the length dynamics of treadmilling filaments in the presence of molecular motors. A treadmilling filament grows by subunit addition at one end and shrinks by subunit removal at the other. Molecular motors can attach to the filament, move towards the shrinking end, and detach from the filament. We consider motors that are also capable of inducing subunit ...