Study offers clues to beating hearing loss

... The Leeds team has discovered that the myosin 7 motor protein - found in the tiny hairs of the ... deaf-blindness." There are around 40 myosin motor proteins in the human body, the most familiar of which is the type of myosin found in skeletal and heart muscle. But all ...

Ancient protein offers clues to killer condition

... researchers have found that a motor protein, myosin 2, remains structurally identical in both ... Sciences: This is an astonishing discovery. myosin 2s function is to make the smooth muscle in ... completely different regulatory mechanisms: the myosin in a turkeys gizzards allows it to chew food in ...

Media highlights in the Dec. 15 issue of Biophysical Journal

... cardiac contraction; interfilament spacing; myosin cross-bridges; x-ray diffraction The ... sensing the spacing between the filaments of myosin and actin as the heart fills with blood. The ... complex nature involving binding of both Ca2+ and myosin (a linear force-generating motor) to actin ...

Dense tissue promotes aggressive cancers

... mechanotransduction. Proteins that generate contractile forces, such as myosin "motors," are important players in mechanotransduction. Weaver and colleagues confirmed that myosin motors are involved in sparking more degradation by invadopodia in ...

Policing cells demand ID to tell friend from foe, say University of Pennsylvania cell engineers

... to coexist and move on. The team found that both actin and non-muscle myosin were involved in the attack of foreign sheep cells due to recognition of ... CD47 affects its receptor, SIRP-alpha, which in turn inactivates the myosin by preventing the addition of a phosphate group to the brawny molecule. By ...

How molecular muscles help cells divide

... been known that the contractile ring is made up of muscle-like actin and myosin contractile proteins that are involved a process in some ways similar to ... grow in random directions until they encounter another node, where myosin motors in the contacted node pull on the actin filament, bringing the two ...

Muscle atrophy through thick but not thin

... in a specific order. The researchers hypothesize that removal of certain thick filament components first permits subsequent MuRF1 access to the myosin heavy chain. However, MuRF1 doesn't exert the same power over the thin filament, which began to come apart even when MuRF1 was absent. "Up to now, ...

Why 'lazy Susan' has a weak heart

... flow. Dr. Benjamin Meder and Christina Laufer from Dr. Wolfgang Rottbauer's research group (Department of Cardiology) examined its muscle protein myosin light chain-1, which is involved in contraction of the heart muscle. They discovered the crucial change in the amino acid Serine 195, which was lost ...

Rong Li Lab offers insight into adaptive ability of cells

... treatment. The work was published in the November 26 issue of Cell . Working with yeast cells, the team disabled a motor protein, type II myosin which normally powers cell division and observed the cellular response. As predicted, blocking division initially resulted in severe growth and ...

UIC researchers make promising finding in severe lung disease

... to death in 30 percent to 40 percent of cases. There is no effective treatment. It has previously been shown that the enzyme, called nonmuscle myosin light-chain kinase, or MYLK, plays a pivotal role in the disruption of the endothelial barrier -- a single thin layer of cells that line blood ...

Motor protein plays key role in connecting neurons

... A motor protein called myosin X runs the main road of a developing neuron, ... neurons form connections, researchers have found myosin X travels a portion of a neuron's backbone called ... proper connections. When researchers cut off myosin X's motor ?which they believe happens in spinal ...

Discovery of agile molecular motors could aid in treating motor neuron diseases

... found that a "local delivery" motor, termed myosin V, moves cargo with a variable path short ... track called actin. This flexibility could help myosin V navigate crowded regions of the cell where the ... pose an impediment to motion. Defects in myosin V function also result in neurological defects. ...

A new way of looking at molecular motors

... such as malaria. All complex organisms use myosin and its relatives, kinesin and dynein, to move ... includes 250 myosins and increases the number of myosin subclasses from 18 to 24, enabling researchers to ... compound adenosine triphosphate (ATP) for fuel. myosin runs on the filaments of actin, a protein found ...

Movement of chromosome in nucleus visualized

... biophysics at UIC, who had discovered a type of myosin in the nucleus. Most myosin molecules are found in the cytoplasm, where they ... When the researchers introduced a mutant form of myosin protein to the nucleus, the movement slowed. ...

A new focus for the mechanism of nerve growth

... This study implicates the molecular motor, myosin II, as a key part of the process of recycling the ... and directing nerve growth. Proteins in the myosin family function as molecular motors; the most ... power contraction in heart and skeletal muscles. myosin II motors are involved in functions such as ...

Image of myosin-actin interaction revealed in cover story of Molecular Cell

... atomic-resolution images of the motor protein myosin V as it "walks" along other proteins, revealing ... was the first to reveal the 3D representation of myosin V "walking" along actin filament, a key protein ... electron-cryo microscopy to take 3D snapshots of myosin V and actin interacting, researchers were able to ...

Spiders help scientists discover how muscles relax

... another muscle protein, actin. When the actin and myosin filaments slide along one another, the muscle ... Padron's study focused on the long, rod-shaped myosin of the thick filaments. The heads of these myosin rods project outward from the thick filament to ...

UI researcher studies deafness in fruit flies, humans

... work -- showing that loss of function in the myosin VIIA gene leads to complete deafness in fruit ... component specialized for hearing function, myosin VIIA, is conserved in these ears. In looking ... by the normal flies to those generated by myosin VIIA mutant flies, they showed that ...

Newts which regrow their hearts

... their characteristic properties; they can dedifferentiate. The researchers were able to show that proteins typical of heart muscle cells - the heavy myosin chain and various troponins - were dramatically down-regulated in this process. At the same time, the cells embark on massive cell division to build ...

Python a 'hearty' eater

... aerobic training," said Hicks. In the snake, the rapid ventricular growth coincided with an increased production of the muscle protein, myosin. myosin is involved in muscle contraction, and hence, plays a key role in pumping blood. Hicks and his colleagues propose that these animals could be an ...

DNA Recombination and Repair—A New Twist to RecA Function

... motors harness the energy of ATP (or GTP, a related energy currency) and transform it into mechanical force. Well-known examples of motors include myosin and dynein, proteins that use ATP to ferry intracellular cargo along fibers made of actin or tubulin proteins. The ATP-dependent assembly of actin or ...