Kinesin articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    KIF14 is a mitotic kinesin whose malfunction is associated with cerebral and renal developmental defects and several cancers. Here the authors use cryoEM to determine 20 structures of KIF14 constructs bound to microtubules in the presence of different nucleotide analogues and provide the structural basis for a coordinated chemo-mechanical kinesin translocation model.

    • Matthieu P.M.H. Benoit
    • , Ana B. Asenjo
    •  & Hernando Sosa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Monitoring the activity of the processive motor protein kinesin-1 in live cells is currently difficult. Here the authors report the fluorogenic small molecule QPD-OTf, a kinesin-1 substrate that causes activity-dependent dye precipitation.

    • Simona Angerani
    • , Eric Lindberg
    •  & Nicolas Winssinger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Kinesin motor proteins are critical for maintaining mitotic spindle integrity, which is important for chromosome stability. Here, the authors show that the kinesin motor protein, KIF18A, permits the proliferation of chromosomally unstable cells and knockdown of KIF18A induces centrosome fragmentation.

    • Carolyn Marquis
    • , Cindy L. Fonseca
    •  & Jason Stumpff

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Intracellular trafficking of organelles is driven by kinesin-1 stepping along microtubules, but crowding conditions impede kinesin-1 motility. Here authors demonstrate that TRAK1, an adaptor protein essential for mitochondrial trafficking, activates kinesin-1 and increases robustness of kinesin-1 stepping on crowded microtubule surfaces.

    • Verena Henrichs
    • , Lenka Grycova
    •  & Zdenek Lansky

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Kinesin-1 is a motor protein transporting cargo along microtubules. Here the authors show that kinesin-1 is required for antigen cross-presentation and coordinates endosome scission from early endosomes to allow sorting internalized cargoes towards the recycling endosomal or lysosomal compartments.

    • Meriem Belabed
    • , François-Xavier Mauvais
    •  & Gaël Ménasché

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Proteins are transported among eukaryotic organelles along the cytoskeleton in membrane carriers. Here authors find that the Dopey1-Mon2 complex functions as a dual-lipid-regulated cargo-adaptor to recruit kinesin-1 to secretory and endocytic organelles or membrane carriers.

    • Divyanshu Mahajan
    • , Hieng Chiong Tie
    •  & Lei Lu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The kinesin-3 KIF1C transports dense core vesicles in neurons and delivers integrins to cell adhesions sites. Here the authors show that KIF1C's autoinhibitory interactions are released upon binding of protein tyrosine phosphatase PTPN21 or cargo adapter Hook3 resulting in cargo-activated transport.

    • Nida Siddiqui
    • , Alexander James Zwetsloot
    •  & Anne Straube

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microtubules (MT) form higher-order structures such as asters, but the molecular pathway underlying aster formation remains unclear. Here authors demonstrate that the kinesin-14, HSET, clusters with soluble (nonMT) tubulin via its N-terminal tail domain and thereby promotes MT aster formation.

    • Stephen R. Norris
    • , Seungyeon Jung
    •  & Ryoma Ohi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Kinesin-14s, such as Ncd, interact with microtubules with their non-processive motor domains and their diffusive tail domains, but the influence of the tail domains on motor performance is not known. Here the authors show that tail domain slippage limits the velocities and forces generated by Ncd, suggesting it acts as a slippery crosslinker.

    • Annemarie Lüdecke
    • , Anja-Maria Seidel
    •  & Stefan Diez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Kinesin-13s are microtubule depolymerizing enzymes. Here the authors present the crystal structure of a DARPin fused construct comprising the short neck region and motor domain of kinesin-13 in complex with an αβ-tubulin heterodimer, which shows that kinesin-13 functions by stabilizing a curved tubulin conformation.

    • Weiyi Wang
    • , Soraya Cantos-Fernandes
    •  & Benoît Gigant

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ciliary transition zone (TZ) regulates the protein and membrane composition of the primary cilium. Here the authors identify the kinesin-3 motor protein KIF13B as a regulator of TZ membrane composition that controls the ciliary accumulation of Smoothened, which is involved in activation of Sonic hedgehog signalling.

    • Kenneth B. Schou
    • , Johanne B. Mogensen
    •  & Lotte B. Pedersen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Kinesin-14s are commonly considered to be minus end-directed microtubule motor proteins. Here the authors show that KlpA, a fungal kinesin-14 orthologue, relies on its N-terminal nonmotor microtubule-binding tail to achieve context-dependent bidirectional motility.

    • Andrew R. Popchock
    • , Kuo-Fu Tseng
    •  & Weihong Qiu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The use of specific small molecule inhibitors can contribute to the study of kinesins' cellular functions. Here the authors develop a chemical-genetic approach to engineer kinesin motors that can be efficiently inhibited upon addition of cell-permeable molecules.

    • Martin F. Engelke
    • , Michael Winding
    •  & Kristen J. Verhey

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The kinesin-3 motor KIF1A is inefficient in its single-headed form but recent studies have predicted that force transmission is enabled when motors work in teams. Here Oriola et al.show that singleheaded KIF1A motors can pull tubes from lipid vesicles, and form left-handed helices around microtubules by generating lateral forces.

    • David Oriola
    • , Sophie Roth
    •  & Jaume Casademunt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    During mitosis, kinesin-5 motors are thought to crosslink microtubules in a muscle-like sliding filament mechanism. By combining electron microscopy with other structural tools, the authors reveal how four kinesin-5 polypeptides are organized into bipolar minifilaments.

    • Seyda Acar
    • , David B. Carlson
    •  & Jonathan M. Scholey

  • Article |

    Kinesin-1 is a motor protein that transports cargo along microtubules and defects in this process can result in neurodegeneration. In this study, a role for casein kinase 2 in regulating the activity of Kinesin-1 is reported, suggesting that signalling molecules can modulate this transport process.

    • Jing Xu
    • , Babu J. N. Reddy
    •  & Steven P. Gross

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