Molecular motors: Kinesin's string variable.
A recent model suggests that the walking action of kinesin is due to a 13 residue 'fundamental engine' called the neck linker domain, which cyclically zips and unzips to the main part of the heads. New experiments confirm one prediction of the model: that crosslinking the neck linker to the head should block motility.
Cross
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RA
Molecular Motors Group, Marie Curie Research Institute, The Chart, Surrey RH8 OTL, Oxted, UK. r.cross@mcri.ac.uk
D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate / Q000378:metabolism*; D000266:Adenylyl Imidodiphosphate / Q000378:metabolism; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D016547:Kinesins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
D000266:Adenylyl Imidodiphosphate; D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate; D016547:Kinesins