Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Molecular motors

Keeping the beat

Nature volume 393, pages 624–625 (1998)Cite this article

The undulating beat of eukaryotic flagella and cilia produces forces that propel cells (or the constituents of their environment) in creatures ranging from algae to humans. The beats arise from bends that travel from a flagellum's base to its tip — by repetitively generating these bends, flagella assume waveforms appropriate for their specialized functions. The timing mechanisms that coordinate these beats remain mysterious, but models indicate that the underlying metronome requires a complicated structure called the axoneme1,2,3, at the core of the flagellum. On page 711of this issue, however, Shingyoji et al.4 report that oscillatory movements can be generated by surprisingly simple sub-structures of the axoneme.

Shingyoji et al.4 have used a focused laser beam (optical tweezers) as a micromanipulator and force transducer. They find that the direction of the movement generated by a small number of dynein molecules (perhaps even one) on an isolated doublet microtubule prepared from sea-urchin flagella oscillates when the dynein molecules work against an elastic load. The frequency of the oscillations is similar to the beat of an intact flagellum, in contrast to the faster, smaller oscillations observed in intact non-beating axonemes5.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Dynein molecules on a doublet microtubule interact with a microtubule.

References

  1. Brokaw, C. Math. Biosci. 90, 247–263 (1987).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Murase, M., Hines, M. & Blum, J. J. Theor. Biol. 139, 413–430 (1989).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Lindemann, C. Cell Motil. Cytoskel. 29, 141–154 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Shingyoji, C., Higuchi, H., Yoshimura, M., Katayama, E. & Yanagida, T. Nature 393, 711–714 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Kamimura, S. & Kamiya, R. Nature 340, 476–478 (1989).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Svoboda, K., Schmidt, C., Schnapp, B. & Block, S. Nature 365, 721–727 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Meyhofer, E. & Howard, J. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 92, 574–578 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Dutcher, S. Trends Genet. 11, 398–404 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Goodenough, U. & Heuser, J. J. Mol. Biol. 180, 1083–1118 (1984).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Gee, M., Heuser, J. & Vallee, R. Nature 390, 636–639 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Hancock, W. & Howard, J. J. Cell Biol. 140, 1395–1405 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Mocz, G. & Gibbons, I. Biochemistry 35, 9204–9211 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, CB 347, University of Colorado, Boulder, 80309, Colorado, USA

    Alan J. Hunt

Authors
  1. Alan J. Hunt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hunt, A. Keeping the beat. Nature 393, 624–625 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/31344

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/31344

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing