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Coordination of opposite-polarity microtubule motors

Many cargoes move bidirectionally, frequently reversing course between plus- and minus-end microtubule travel. For such cargoes, the extent and importance of interactions between the opposite-polarity motors is unknown. In this paper we test whether opposite-polarity motors on lipid droplets in Dros...

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Autores principales: Gross, Steven P., Welte, Michael A., Block, Steven M., Wieschaus, Eric F.
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Rockefeller University Press 2002
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2174082/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11854311
http://dx.doi.org/10.1083/jcb.200109047
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author Gross, Steven P.
Welte, Michael A.
Block, Steven M.
Wieschaus, Eric F.
author_facet Gross, Steven P.
Welte, Michael A.
Block, Steven M.
Wieschaus, Eric F.
author_sort Gross, Steven P.
collection PubMed
description Many cargoes move bidirectionally, frequently reversing course between plus- and minus-end microtubule travel. For such cargoes, the extent and importance of interactions between the opposite-polarity motors is unknown. In this paper we test whether opposite-polarity motors on lipid droplets in Drosophila embryos are coordinated and avoid interfering with each other's activity, or whether they engage in a tug of war. To this end we impaired the minus-end transport machinery using dynein and dynactin mutations, and then investigated whether plus-end motion was improved or disrupted. We observe a surprisingly severe impairment of plus-end motion due to these alterations of minus-end motor activity. These observations are consistent with a coordination hypothesis, but cannot be easily explained with a tug of war model. Our measurements indicate that dynactin plays a crucial role in the coordination of plus- and minus-end–directed motors. Specifically, we propose that dynactin enables dynein to participate efficiently in bidirectional transport, increasing its ability to stay “on” during minus-end motion and keeping it “off” during plus-end motion.
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spelling pubmed-21740822008-05-01 Coordination of opposite-polarity microtubule motors Gross, Steven P. Welte, Michael A. Block, Steven M. Wieschaus, Eric F. J Cell Biol Article Many cargoes move bidirectionally, frequently reversing course between plus- and minus-end microtubule travel. For such cargoes, the extent and importance of interactions between the opposite-polarity motors is unknown. In this paper we test whether opposite-polarity motors on lipid droplets in Drosophila embryos are coordinated and avoid interfering with each other's activity, or whether they engage in a tug of war. To this end we impaired the minus-end transport machinery using dynein and dynactin mutations, and then investigated whether plus-end motion was improved or disrupted. We observe a surprisingly severe impairment of plus-end motion due to these alterations of minus-end motor activity. These observations are consistent with a coordination hypothesis, but cannot be easily explained with a tug of war model. Our measurements indicate that dynactin plays a crucial role in the coordination of plus- and minus-end–directed motors. Specifically, we propose that dynactin enables dynein to participate efficiently in bidirectional transport, increasing its ability to stay “on” during minus-end motion and keeping it “off” during plus-end motion. The Rockefeller University Press 2002-02-18 /pmc/articles/PMC2174082/ /pubmed/11854311 http://dx.doi.org/10.1083/jcb.200109047 Text en Copyright © 2002, The Rockefeller University Press This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.rupress.org/terms). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 4.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Gross, Steven P.
Welte, Michael A.
Block, Steven M.
Wieschaus, Eric F.
Coordination of opposite-polarity microtubule motors
title Coordination of opposite-polarity microtubule motors
title_full Coordination of opposite-polarity microtubule motors
title_fullStr Coordination of opposite-polarity microtubule motors
title_full_unstemmed Coordination of opposite-polarity microtubule motors
title_short Coordination of opposite-polarity microtubule motors
title_sort coordination of opposite-polarity microtubule motors
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2174082/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11854311
http://dx.doi.org/10.1083/jcb.200109047
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