Tug of war in the cells ( This release is available in A HREF h...)

Tug of war in the cells

Date:3/19/2008

This release is available in German.

Transport processes in the cells of our body resemble the transport of goods on the roads. Molecular motors, which are special protein molecules, act as trucks. They carry the cellular cargo on piggy-back and transport it along microtubules, which are the roads of the cell. However, the molecular transporters are a billion times smaller than trucks and can only move as far as the beginning or end of the microtubule, depending on their type. They have to fight their way through a crowd that is more like a busy pedestrian area than a motorway, and also have to compete with motors that want to move in the opposite direction, as scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam have now discovered in a computer simulation.

Several motors are always involved in the tug-of-war over a cargo - for example, some of the kinesin type and some of the dynein type. The kinesin motors move to the end of the microtubule that biologists call the positive end, while the dynein motors move to the minus end. The findings of the Potsdam-based scientists show that the stronger motor team determines the direction in which the cargo is moved. It involves a tug-of-war where opposing motors break off from the microtubule. It was previously assumed that there was a system of coordination that allowed for only one team of motors; it was believed this alternated between one team and the other.

"The tug-of-war is the simplest imaginable mechanism," says Melanie Mueller, one of the scientists involved in the project. "But it is possible, if you consider the properties of the individual motors measured experimentally. They produce a strong non-linear reaction when they are pulled." A motor from the losing team is subject to a strong force and is quickly removed from the microtubule. The remaining motor
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Contact: Melanie J.I. Mueller
mmueller@mpikg.mpg.de
49-331-567-9623
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Source:Eurekalert

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