121 research outputs found
Nucleotide specificities of anterograde and retrograde organelle transport in Reticulomyxa are indistinguishable.
Membrane-bound organelles move bidirectionally along microtubules in the freshwater ameba, Reticulomyxa. We have examined the nucleotide requirements for transport in a lysed cell model and compared them with kinesin and dynein-driven motility in other systems. Both anterograde and retrograde transport in Reticulomyxa show features characteristic of dynein but not of kinesin-powered movements: organelle transport is reactivated only by ATP and no other nucleoside triphosphates; the Km and Vmax of the ATP-driven movements are similar to values obtained for dynein rather than kinesin-driven movement; and of 15 ATP analogues tested for their ability to promote organelle transport, only 4 of them did. This narrow specificity resembles that of dynein-mediated in vitro transport and is dissimilar to the broad specificity of the kinesin motor (Shimizu, T., K. Furusawa, S. Ohashi, Y. Y. Toyoshima, M. Okuno, F. Malik, and R. D. Vale. 1991. J. Cell Biol. 112: 1189-1197). Remarkably, anterograde and retrograde organelle transport cannot be distinguished at all with respect to nucleotide specificity, kinetics of movement, and the ability to use the ATP analogues. Since the "kinetic fingerprints" of the motors driving transport in opposite directions are indistinguishable, the same type of motor(s) may be involved in the two directions of movement
Self-organization and Mechanical Properties of Active Filament Bundles
A phenomenological description for active bundles of polar filaments is
presented. The activity of the bundle results from crosslinks, that induce
relative displacements between the aligned filaments. Our generic description
is based on momentum conservation within the bundle. By specifying the internal
forces, a simple minimal model for the bundle dynamics is obtained, capturing
generic dynamic behaviors. In particular, contracted states as well as solitary
and oscillatory waves appear through dynamic instabilities. The introduction of
filament adhesion leads to self-organized persistent filament transport.
Furthermore, calculating the tension, homogeneous bundles are shown to be able
to actively contract and to perform work against external forces. Our
description is motivated by dynamic phenomena in the cytoskeleton and could
apply to stress-fibers and self-organization phenomena during cell-locomotion.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figure
Kinetochore fiber formation in animal somatic cells : dueling mechanisms come to a draw
Author Posting. © The Author, 2005. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Chromosoma 114 (2005): 310-318, doi:10.1007/s00412-005-0028-2.The attachment to and movement of a chromosome on the mitotic spindle is
mediated by the formation of a bundle of microtubules (MTs) that tethers the
kinetochore on the chromosome to a spindle pole. The origin of these “kinetochore
fibers” (K-fibers) has been investigated for over 125 years. As noted in 1944 by
Schrader, there are only three possible ways to form a K-fiber: either it a) grows from
the pole until it contacts the kinetochore; b) grows directly from the kinetochore; or c)
it forms as a result of an interaction between the pole and the chromosome. Since
Schrader’s time it has been firmly established that K-fibers in centrosome-containing
animal somatic cells form as kinetochores capture MTs growing from the spindle pole
(route a). It is now similarly clear that in cells lacking centrosomes, including plants
and many animal oocytes, K-fibers “self-assemble” from MTs generated by the
chromosomes (route b). Can animal somatic cells form K-fibers in the absence of
centrosomes by the “self-assembly” pathway? In 2000 the answer to this question
was shown to be a resounding “yes”. With this result, the next question became
whether the presence of a centrosome normally suppresses K-fiber self-assembly, or
if this route works concurrently with centrosome-mediated K-fiber formation. This
question, too, has recently been answered: observations on untreated live animal cells
expressing GFP-tagged tubulin clearly show that kinetochores can nucleate the
formation of their associated MTs in the presence of functional centrosomes. The
concurrent operation of these two “dueling” routes for forming K-fibers in animals
helps explain why the attachment of kinetochores and the maturation of K-fibers
occur as quickly as it does on all chromosomes within a cell.The work is sponsored by
NIH grant GMS 40198
An analysis of binary microlensing event OGLE-2015-BLG-0060
We present the analysis of stellar binary microlensing event OGLE-2015-BLG-0060 based on observations obtained from 13 different telescopes. Intensive coverage of the anomalous parts of the light curve was achieved by automated follow-up observations from the robotic telescopes of the Las Cumbres Observatory. We show that, for the first time, all main features of an anomalous microlensing event are well covered by follow-up data, allowing us to estimate the physical parameters of the lens. The strong detection of second-order effects in the event light curve necessitates the inclusion of longer-baseline survey data in order to constrain the parallax vector. We find that the event was most likely caused by a stellar binary-lens with masses M⋆1=0.87±0.12M⊙ and M⋆2=0.77±0.11M⊙. The distance to the lensing system is 6.41 ± 0.14 kpc and the projected separation between the two components is 13.85 ± 0.16 AU. Alternative interpretations are also considered
HECTD1 controls the protein level of IQGAP1 to regulate the dynamics of adhesive structures
Tubulin hooks as probes for microtubule polarity: an analysis of the method and an evaluation of data on microtubule polarity in the mitotic spindle.
- …