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.

Direct observation of kinesin stepping by optical trapping interferometry

Nature volume 365, pages 721–727 (1993)Cite this article

Abstract

Do biological motors move with regular steps? To address this question, we constructed instrumentation with the spatial and temporal sensitivity to resolve movement on a molecular scale. We deposited silica beads carrying single molecules of the motor protein kinesin on microtubules using optical tweezers and analysed their motion under controlled loads by interferometry. We find that kinesin moves with 8-nm steps.

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

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

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

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Huxley, H. E. Science 164, 1356–1366 (1969).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Squire, J. The Structural Basis of Muscle Contraction (Plenum, London, 1981).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  3. Bagshaw, C. R. Muscle Contraction (Chapman & Hall, London, 1982).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  4. Burton, K. J. Musc. Res. Cell Motil. 13, 590–607 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Simmons, R. M. Curr. Biol. 2, 373–375 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Cooke, R. CRC Crit. Rev. Biochem. 21, 53–117 (1986).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Kron, S. J. & Spudich, J. A. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 83, 6262–6276 (1986).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Vale, R. D., Schnapp, B. J., Reese, T. S. & Sheetz, M. P. Cell 40, 559–569 (1985).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Ishijima, A., Doi, T., Sakurada, K. & Yanagida, T. Nature 352, 301–306 (1991).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Uyeda, T. Q. P., Kron, S. J. & Spudich, J. A. J. molec. Biol. 214, 699–714 (1990).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Uyeda, T. Q. P., Warrick, H. M., Kron, S. J. & Spudich, J. A. Nature 352, 307–311 (1991).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Howard, J., Hudspeth, A. J. & Vale, R. D. Nature 342, 154–158 (1989).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Block, S. M., Goldstein, L. S. B. & Schnapp, B. J. Nature 348, 348–352 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Yang, J. T., Saxton, W. M., Stewart, R. J., Raff, E. C. & Goldstein, L. S. B. Science 249, 42–47 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Toyoshima, Y., Kron, S. J. & Spudich, J. A. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 87, 7130–7134 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Yanagida, T., Arata, T. & Oosawa, F, Nature 316, 366–369 (1985).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Harada, Y., Sakurada, K., Aoki, T., Thomas, D. & Yanagida, T. J. molec. Biol. 216, 49–68 (1990).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Higuchi, H. & Goldman, Y. Nature 353, 352–354 (1991).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Spudich, J. A. Nature 348, 284–285 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Gittes, F., Mickey, B., Nettleton, J. & Howard, J. J. Cell Biol. 120, 923–934 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Schnapp, B. J. Meth. Enzym. 134, 561–573 (1986).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Ashkin, A., Dziedzic, J. M., Bjorkholm, J. E. & Chu, S. Optics Lett. 11, 288–290 (1986).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Block, S. M. in Noninvasive Techniques in Cell Biology 375–401 (Wiley-Liss, New York, 1990).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Denk, W. & Webb, W. W. Appl. Optics 29, 2382–2390 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Amos, L. & Klug, A. J. Cell Sci. 14, 523–549 (1974).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Kamimura, S. Appl. Optics 26, 3425–3427 (1987).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Kamimura, S. & Kamiya, R. J. Cell Biol. 116, 1443–1454 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Block, S. M., Blair, D. F. & Berg, H. C. Nature 338, 514–517 (1989).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Ashkin, A., Schuetze, K., Dziedzic, J. M., Euteneuer, U. & Schliwa, M. Nature 348, 346–348 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Kuo, S. C. & Sheetz, M. P. Science 260, 232–234 (1993).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Simmons, R. M. et al. in Mechanisms of Myofilament Sliding in Muscle (eds Sugi, H. & Pollack, G.) 331–336 (Plenum, New York, 1993).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  32. Wang, C. W. & Uhlenbeck, G. E. in Selected Papers on Noise and Stochastic Processes (ed. Wax, N.) 113–132 (Dover, New York, 1954).

    Google Scholar 

  33. Happel, J. & Brenner, H. Low Reynolds Number Hydrodynamics 322–331 (Kluwer Academic, Dordecht, 1991).

    Google Scholar 

  34. Kuo, S. C., Gelles, J., Steuer, E. & Sheetz, M. P. J. Cell Sci. suppl. 14, 135–138 (1991).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Gallagher, N. C. Jr & Wise, G. L. IEEE Trans. Acoust. Speech Sign. Proc. 29, 1136–1141 (1981).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Oosawa, F. & Hayashi, S. Adv. Biophys. 22, 151–183 (1986).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  37. Schnapp, B. J., Crise, B., Sheetz, M. P., Reese, T. S. & Khan, S. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 87, 10053–10057 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Gelles, J., Schnapp, B. J. & Sheetz, B. J. Nature 331, 450–453 (1988).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Kamimura, S. & Mandelkow, E. J. Cell Biol. 188, 865–875 (1992).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Ray, S., Meyhoefer, E., Milligan, R. A. & Howard, J. A. J. Cell Biol. 121, 1083–1093 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  41. Song, Y.-H. & Mandelkow, E. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 90, 1671–1675 (1993).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Harrison, B. C. et al. Nature 362, 73–75 (1993).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  43. Kusnetsov, S. A. & Gelfand, V. I. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 83, 8530–8534 (1986).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  44. Hackney, D. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 85, 6314–6318 (1988).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Gilbert, S. P. & Johnson, K. A. Biochemistry 32, 4677–4684 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  46. Sakmann, B. & Neher, E. Single-Channel Recording (Plenum, New York, 1983).

    Google Scholar 

  47. Weingarten, M. D., Suter, M. M., Littman, D. R. & Kirschner, M. W. Biochemistry 13, 5529–5537 (1974).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  48. Schnapp, B. J. & Reese, T. S. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 86, 1548–1552 (1989).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  49. Glatter, O. & Kratky, H. C. Small Angle X-Ray Scattering (Academic, New York, 1982).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. Christoph F. Schmidt

    Present address: Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109, USA

  2. Steven M. Block: To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rowland Institute for Science, 100 Edwin Land Boulevard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02142, USA

    Karel Svoboda, Christoph F. Schmidt & Steven M. Block

  2. Committee on Biophysics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, USA

    Karel Svoboda

  3. Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, USA

    Bruce J. Schnapp

Authors
  1. Karel Svoboda
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christoph F. Schmidt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Bruce J. Schnapp
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Steven M. Block
    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

Svoboda, K., Schmidt, C., Schnapp, B. et al. Direct observation of kinesin stepping by optical trapping interferometry. Nature 365, 721–727 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1038/365721a0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/365721a0

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

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