Molecular Motors: Design, Mechanism, and Control

The molecular mechanism of the type IVa pilus motors

Type IVa pili are protein filaments essential for virulence in many bacterial pathogens; they extend and retract from the surface of bacterial cells to pull the bacteria forward. The motor ATPase PilB powers pilus assembly. Here we report the structures of the core ATPase domains of Geobacter metallireducens PilB bound to ADP and the non-hydrolysable ATP analogue, AMP-PNP, at 3.4 and 2.3 Å reso...

Mechanism of membrane nanotube formation by molecular motors.

Membrane nanotubes are ubiquitous in eukaryotic cells due to their involvement in the communication between many different membrane compartments. They are very dynamical structures, which are generally extended along the microtubule network. One possible mechanism of tube formation involves the action of molecular motors, which can generate the necessary force to pull the tubes along the cytosk...

On the walking mechanism of linear molecular motors.

Molecular motors

The " Molecular Motors " Minisymposium focused mainly on the microtubule-based motors kinesin and dynein and a class V myosin. A common feature of all these motors is that they move processively on their track, meaning that the motor can take multiple steps without dissociating. A common theme of the Minisymposium was motor function in a complex intracellular environment. Kathy Trybus (Universi...

Molecular Motors

Perhaps the most fascinating proteins that associate with the cytoskeleton are the molecular motors called motor proteins. These remarkable proteins bind to a polarized cytoskeletal filament and use the energy derived from repeated cycles of ATP hydrolysis to move steadily along it. Dozens of different motor proteins coexist in every eucaryotic cell. They differ in the type of filament they bin...