Biological complexity: walking along filament (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, April 24, 2015, 18:40 (3283 days ago) @ David Turell

Protein molecules actually walk with two legs across actin filaments:-"Because cells are divided in many parts that serve different functions some cellular goodies need to be transported from one part of the cell to another for it to function smoothly. There is an entire class of proteins called 'molecular motors', such as myosin 5, that specialise in transporting cargo using chemical energy as fuel.-"Remarkably, these proteins not only function like nano-scale lorries, they also look like a two-legged creature that takes very small steps. But exactly how Myosin 5 did this was unclear.-"The motion of myosin 5 has now been recorded by a team led by Oxford University scientists using a new microscopy technique that can 'see' tiny steps of tens of nanometres captured at up to 1000 frames per second. The findings are of interest for anyone trying to understand the basis of cellular function but could also help efforts aimed at designing efficient nanomachines.-"'Until now, we believed that the sort of movements or steps these proteins made were random and free-flowing because none of the experiments suggested otherwise,' said Philipp Kukura of Oxford University's Department of Chemistry who led the research recently reported in the journal eLife. 'However, what we have shown is that the movements only appeared random; if you have the capability to watch the motion with sufficient speed and precision, a rigid walking pattern emerges.'-"One of the key problems for those trying to capture proteins on a walkabout is that not only are these molecules small - with steps much smaller than the wavelength of light and therefore the resolution of most optical microscopes - but they are also move very quickly."-
 Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-04-protein-harnesses-power-silly.html#jCp