Cytoplasmic dynein functions as a gear in response to load

Roop Mallik, Brian C. Carter, Stephanie A. Lex, Stephen J. King and Steven P. Gross ()
Additional contact information
Roop Mallik: University of California Irvine
Brian C. Carter: University of California Irvine
Stephanie A. Lex: University of Missouri-Kansas City
Stephen J. King: University of Missouri-Kansas City
Steven P. Gross: University of California Irvine

Nature, 2004, vol. 427, issue 6975, 649-652

Abstract: Abstract Cytoskeletal molecular motors belonging to the kinesin and dynein families transport cargos (for example, messenger RNA, endosomes, virus) on polymerized linear structures called microtubules in the cell1. These ‘nanomachines’ use energy obtained from ATP hydrolysis to generate force2, and move in a step-like manner on microtubules. Dynein3,4,5 has a complex and fundamentally different structure from other motor families. Thus, understanding dynein's force generation can yield new insight into the architecture and function of nanomachines. Here, we use an optical trap6 to quantify motion of polystyrene beads driven along microtubules by single cytoplasmic dynein motors. Under no load, dynein moves predominantly with a mixture of 24-nm and 32-nm steps. When moving against load applied by an optical trap, dynein can decrease step size to 8 nm and produce force up to 1.1 pN. This correlation between step size and force production is consistent with a molecular gear mechanism. The ability to take smaller but more powerful strokes under load—that is, to shift gears—depends on the availability of ATP. We propose a model whereby the gear is downshifted through load-induced binding of ATP at secondary sites in the dynein head.

Date: 2004
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature02293 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:427:y:2004:i:6975:d:10.1038_nature02293

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature02293

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().