Motor protein plays key role in connecting neurons ( ns. When researchers cut off myosi...)

Motor protein plays key role in connecting neurons

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When researchers cut off myosin X's motor ?which they believe happens in spinal cord injuries ?axon outgrowth also was hindered.

"Myosin X plays a critical role in neurons during development," says Dr. Xiong. Different versions of the myosin family proteins are critical to essentially every cell including muscle cells and those that turnover and divide rapidly, such as skin and intestinal cells, and eggs or oocytes.

The rapidly moving protein is easily degraded and needs tight regulation. "If you don't want to have dramatic changes in your neuron structure, you don't want this molecule," she says.

In fact, she suspects the function of myosin X changes as the neuron develops. She has documented that in late stages of development, when the axon needs to stop growing, a shorter molecule, minus the motor, is expressed. "Probably after the neuron is developed, the major work of myosin is done. There are many cleavage sites in the middle and this typically large molecule can be cut down to a small molecule that actually inhibits axon growth function," Dr. Xiong says.

She suspects that negative function surfaces when the spinal cord is cut and plans to examine whether the protein is degraded in spinal cord injuries. "We already have evidence that if this protein degrades, most frequently without its motor domain, it becomes negative, inhibits DCC getting to the proper place and so axonal growth," Dr. Xiong says.
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Source:Medical College of Georgia

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( ns. When researchers cut off myosi...)Motor protein plays key role in connecting neurons