Molecular Motors

Molecular motors are proteins

• function

  • microtubules and their motor proteins help to position organelles within the cell

  • use ATP hydrolysis to produce force and movement along cytoplasmic polymers (microtubules or actin)

• molecular motors bind ATP in the motor domains (heads)

• 2 types of microtubule motor proteins - both move along microtubule using their globular heads

  • head region - associate with their filament tracks (microtubule and actin filaments)

  • tail region - bind to cargo

    	DyNEIN	KineSIn
    Moves towards which end of a microtubule	moves towards minus end = nein = no always move towards the centrosome or other MTOC	moves towards plus end = si = yes always moves away from the centrosome and towards the periphery of cell