Brief Communication abstract
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology 15, 1119 - 1121 (2008)
Published online: 21 September 2008 | doi:10.1038/nsmb.1491
A torque component present in mitotic kinesin Eg5 revealed by three-dimensional tracking
Junichiro Yajima1,2, Kana Mizutani1,2 & Takayuki Nishizaka1
Mitotic kinesin Eg5 is a homotetrameric molecular motor that cross-links and slides microtubules. The extent to which Eg5 moves processively is not clear. Here we use three-dimensional tracking of a quantum dot attached to the microtubule in a motility assay to directly visualize the corkscrew motion of a sliding microtubule. We show that the rotational pitch of microtubule sliding conveniently reports on the processivity of the driving motors, confirming that two-headed Eg5 is much less processive than two-headed kinesin-1.
- Department of Physics, Gakushuin University, 1-5-1 Mejiro, Toshima-ku, 171-8588 Tokyo, Japan.
- These authors contributed equally to this work.
Correspondence to: Takayuki Nishizaka1 e-mail: takayuki.nishizaka@gakushuin.ac.jp
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