Intracellular dynamics of kinesin-1 molecular motors engaged in mitochondrial transport

GONZÁLEZ BARDECI, NICOLÁS; WETZLER, DIANA; GRATTON, ENRICO;GELFAND, VLADIMIR; BRUNO, LUCIANA; LEVI, VALERIA

Congreso; XLV ReuniónAnnual Sociedad Argentina de Biofísica- IX IberoAmerican Congress of Biophysics. III Latin American Federation of Biophysical Societies; 2016

Intracellular transport mediated by molecular motors isessential for most biological functions. These proteins bind to a wide varietyof cellular cargoes and step along cytoskeletal filaments using energy providedby ATP hydrolysis. Two families of molecular motors drive transportalongmicrotubules in a bidirectional manner: dyneins walk towards the minus endslocated near the nucleus, whereas kinesins walk towards the plus ends at theperiphery of the cell. These oppositepolarity motors compete with each other todetermine the direction of motion. Recent theoretical works showed that keyaspects of the transport are finely tuned by spatial distribution of motors onthe organelle membrane. However, there are not experimental evidences of howmotors organize on organelles in living cells