title: Role and regulation of kinesin-8 motors through the cell cycle.
abstract: Members of the kinesin-8 motor family play a central role in controlling microtubule length throughout the eukaryotic cell cycle. Inactivation of kinesin-8 causes defects in cell polarity during interphase and astral and mitotic spindle length, metaphase chromosome alignment, timing of anaphase onset and accuracy of chromosome segregation. Although the biophysical mechanism by which kinesin-8 molecules influence microtubule dynamics has been studied extensively in a variety of species, a consensus view has yet to emerge. One reason for this might be that some members of the kinesin-8 family can associate to other microtubule-associated proteins, cell cycle regulatory proteins and other kinesin family members. In this review we consider how cell cycle specific modification and its association to other regulatory proteins may modulate the function of kinesin-8 to enable it to function as a master regulator of microtubule dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Mechanochemical Cell Biology Building, Division of Biomedical Cell Biology, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill, Coventry, CV4 7AL UK.
authors.forename: Liam J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Messin
authors.affiliation: Mechanochemical Cell Biology Building, Division of Biomedical Cell Biology, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill, Coventry, CV4 7AL UK.
authors.forename: Jonathan B A
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Millar
keywords: Depolymerase; Kif18A; Kinesin-8; Kip3; Klp5; Microtubule length