Tag: "myosin" at biology news

DNA Recombination and Repair—A New Twist to RecA Function

...nical 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 tubulin fibers itself can work as a motor: for instance, the march of white blood cells toward patho...

UI researcher studies deafness in fruit flies, humans

...ecular component specialized for hearing function, myosin VIIA, is conserved in these ears. In looking for ...enerated by the normal flies to those generated by myosin VIIA mutant flies, they showed that the myosin VIIA gene is essential for hearing in flies, as it is...

Spiders help scientists discover how muscles relax

... another muscle protein, actin. When the actin and myosin filaments slide along one another, the muscle cont...s. 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 co...

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

...(3D) atomic-resolution images of the motor protein myosin V as it "walks" along other proteins, revealing ne..., was the first to reveal the 3D representation of myosin V "walking" along actin filament, a key protein involved in motility and muscle contraction. Using ...

A new focus for the mechanism of nerve growth

...orks. This study implicates the molecular motor, myosin II, as a key part of the process of recycling the ... drug called blebbistatin, that relaxes non-muscle myosin II and effectively blocks processes such as cell division. "Past research has focused on how actin...

Movement of chromosome in nucleus visualized

...nd biophysics at UIC, who had discovered a type of myosin in the nucleus. Most myosin molecules are found in the cytoplasm, where they interact with actin filaments to do physical work. ...

A new way of looking at molecular motors

...eases such as malaria. All complex organisms use myosin and its relatives, kinesin and dynein, to move sub...m includes 250 myosins and increases the number of myosin subclasses from 18 to 24, enabling researchers to better understand each myosin's function. "Myosi...

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

...linois found that a "local delivery" motor, termed myosin V, moves cargo with a variable path short distance...ar track called actin. This flexibility could help myosin V navigate crowded regions of the cell where the actin filaments criss-cross and where other cellula...

Newts which regrow their hearts

...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 up new heart muscle. It takes around two weeks for the heart function to be restored in the newt. The...

Motor protein plays key role in connecting neurons

A motor protein called myosin X runs the main road of a developing neuron, deliv...w neurons form connections, researchers have found myosin X travels a portion of a neuron's backbone called the actin filament, a sort of two-way highway in t...

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