title: The crystal structure of dimeric kinesin and implications for microtubule-dependent motility.
abstract: The dimeric form of the kinesin motor and neck domain from rat brain with bound ADP has been solved by X-ray crystallography. The two heads of the dimer are connected via a coiled-coil alpha-helical interaction of their necks. They are broadly similar to one another; differences are most apparent in the head-neck junction and in a moderate reorientation of the neck helices in order to adopt to the coiled-coil conformation. The heads show a rotational symmetry (approximately 120 degrees) about an axis close to that of the coiled-coil. This arrangement is unexpected since it is not compatible with the microtubule lattice. In this arrangement, the two heads of a kinesin dimer could not have equivalent interactions with microtubules.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Unit for Structural Molecular Biology, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kozielski
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sack
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marx
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thormählen
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schönbrunn
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Biou
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Mandelkow
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mandelkow
mesh_terms: D000244:Adenosine Diphosphate / Q000378:metabolism; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001923:Brain Chemistry; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D019281:Dimerization; D016547:Kinesins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008870:Microtubules / Q000378:metabolism*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D000244:Adenosine Diphosphate; D016547:Kinesins