Functional tuning of molecular motors

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Bernhard Brenner (†)
• Subject Area: Cell Biology
• Term: from 2006 to 2013
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 14023866

Motor proteins are at the center not only of movement of whole organisms but also of intracellular transport and cytoskeletal dynamics. Of specific significance are processive motor proteins that move step by step along cytoskeletal structures without detaching from their track, or that can hold onto a cytoskeletal element over long period of time. Some motor proteins can act in opposite direction compared to conventional motor proteins. This allows bi-directional transport on the cytoskeletal tracks. In close collaboration with Manstein and Tsiavaliaris we will characterize native and recombinant processive myosins of different sources with single molecule detection techniques. Our main goals are (i) to identify structural or functional requirements for processive movement, and to explore mechanisms of modulation and regulation by which a less-processive motor protein can be tuned into a highly processive one, or by which a mover1, i.e., a motor protein involved in transport, can be tuned into a anchor1 to hold its cargo at a target position, (ii) We will try to identify structural and functional determinants of stall forces at which directionality of movement is reversed. The final goal (iii) is to integrate structural, kinetic, and mechanical features into a quantitative model of processive movement.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 629: Molecular Mechanisms of Cell Motility