Brief Communication abstract


Nature Chemical Biology 5, 403 - 405 (2009)
Published online: 10 May 2009 | doi:10.1038/nchembio.171

Brownian search-and-catch mechanism for myosin-VI steps

Mitsuhiro Iwaki1,2, Atsuko H Iwane1,2, Tetsuya Shimokawa2, Roger Cooke3 & Toshio Yanagida1,2

Top

The cargo transporter myosin-VI processively walks along actin filaments using its two heads. Here we use single-molecule nanometry to show that the strong binding by myosin heads to actin is greatly accelerated (approx30-fold) when backward strain is applied to weakly bound heads during the actin search. We propose that the myosin head searches for the forward actin target by Brownian motion and catches the actin in a strain-dependent manner.

Top
  1. Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
  2. Soft Biosystem Group, Laboratories for Nanobiology, Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
  3. Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.

Correspondence to: Toshio Yanagida1,2 e-mail: yanagida@phys1.med.osaka-u.ac.jp



MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS

These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.

NEWS AND VIEWS

Materials in Archaeology

Nature News and Views (14 Oct 1967)

Pulling out the coordination mechanism of myosin-VI

Nature Chemical Biology News and Views (01 Jun 2009)

No strain, no gain

Nature Cell Biology News and Views (01 Sep 2005)

See all 9 matches for News And Views

Extra navigation

Subscribe to Nature Chemical Biology

Subscribe

Open Innovation Challenges

naturejobs