title: Properties of the Kinesin-1 motor DdKif3 from Dictyostelium discoideum.
abstract: The amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum possesses genes for 13 different kinesins. Here we characterize DdKif3, a member of the Kinesin-1 family. Kinesin-1 motors form homodimers that can move micrometer-long distances on microtubules using the energy derived from ATP hydrolysis. We expressed recombinant motors in Escherichia coli and tested them in different in vitro assays. Full-length and truncated Kif3 motors were active in gliding and ATPase assays. They showed a strong dependence on ionic strength. Like the full-length motor, the truncated DdKif3-592 motor (aa 1-592; comprising motor domain, neck, and partial stalk) reached its maximum speed of around 2.0micrcom s(-1) at a potassium acetate concentration of 200mM. The shortened DdKif3-342 motor (aa 1-342; comprising motor domain, partial neck) showed a high ATP turnover, comparable to that of the fungal Kinesin-1, Nkin. Results from the duty cycle calculations and gliding assays indicate that DdKif3 is a processive motor. A GFP-fusion protein revealed a mainly cytoplasmic localization of DdKif3. Immunofluorescence staining makes an association with the endoplasmic reticulum or mitochondria unlikely. Despite a similar phylogenetic distance to both metazoa and fungi, in terms of its biochemical properties DdKif3 revealed a closer similarity to fungal than animal kinesins.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Technical University Munich, James-Franck-Strasse, D-85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Röhlk
authors.forename: Meino
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rohlfs
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Leier
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schliwa
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Parsch
authors.forename: Günther
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Woehlke
mesh_terms: D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate / Q000378:metabolism; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004926:Escherichia coli; D016547:Kinesins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008870:Microtubules / Q000378:metabolism; D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate; D016547:Kinesins