- Molecular motors use polymer tracks to move cellular cargoes around the cell. Complex molecular motors drive the systems. A conventional kinesin molecule travels continuously along a microtubule in discrete 8-nm steps. This processive movement is generally explained by models in which the two identical heads of a kinesin move hand-over-hand.
- The roles of the two heads alternate every 8-nm step.
- Kinesins are biological motor proteins that are ATP-dependent and function to assist cells in transporting molecules along microtubules. These proteins function as highways within cells as they allow for the transport of cellular cargo. Kinesin motors are involved in relay races on a microscale. They are an intracellular transport system. They work in concert with other cargo-carrying engines in the complex function known as intraflagellar transport. The flow is from the center of the cell to its periphery.
- Kinesin-14 motors represent an essential class of molecular motors that bind to microtubules and then walk toward the microtubule minus-end.
- Masterpieces of microengineering, kinesins are motorized transport machines that move cellular materials to their correct locations in the cell so they can perform their functions. Kinesins have two feet, or “globular heads,” that walk one foot over another. Known as the “workhorses of the cell,” kinesins can carry cargo many times their size.
- Kinesins are microtubule-based molecular motors that convert chemical energy from ATP turnover to mechanical force. These kinesins can pull a cellular cargo along a microtubule, slide one microtubule relative to another, or even remodel the microtubule cytoskeleton through the regulation of microtubule dynamics.
- Kinesin has a tail region that binds to vessels and two heads that can attach to microtubules. Marathoners run up the neuron into the transition zone, where the cargo is handed off to a sprinter. The sprinter runs it up to the cilium tip. The faster and more processive OSM-3 takes over the transport duties in the handover zone. The catalytic motor of kinesin is a component of the heavy chains. This system optimizes cargo delivery. Kinesins are motor proteins that transport such cargo by walking unidirectionally along microtubule tracks, hydrolyzing one molecule of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) at each step.
- Kinesins are found in all eukaryotic organisms and are essential to all eukaryotic cells. They are involved in diverse cellular functions such as microtubule dynamics and morphogenesis, chromosome segregation, spindle formation, elongation, and transport of organelles.
- The microtubule-dependent motor proteins form a large gene family. The human genome contains 45 KIF genes. (superfamily proteins).
