Brief Communication abstract


Nature Structural & Molecular Biology 14, 246 - 248 (2007)
Published online: 11 February 2007 | Corrected online: 18 February 2007 | doi:10.1038/nsmb1206

Dynamics of the unbound head during myosin V processive translocation

Alexander R Dunn1 & James A Spudich1

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Myosin V moves cargoes along actin filaments by walking hand over hand. Although numerous studies support the basic hand-over-hand model, little is known about the fleeting intermediate that occurs when the rear head detaches from the filament. Here we use submillisecond dark-field imaging of gold nanoparticle–labeled myosin V to directly observe the free head as it releases from the actin filament, diffuses forward and rebinds. We find that the unbound head rotates freely about the lever-arm junction, a trait that likely facilitates travel through crowded actin meshworks.

NOTE: In the version of this article initially published online, the length of the step shown in Figure 3e was mislabeled: it should be +25nm, not +24nm. In addition, the word "(right)" was erroneously included in the legend of Figure 2b. The errors have been corrected for all versions of the article.

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  1. Stanford University School of Medicine, Beckman Center, 279 Campus Drive, Stanford, California 94305-5307, USA.

Correspondence to: James A Spudich1 e-mail: jspudich@stanford.edu

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