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From Proteopedia

Revision as of 00:21, 22 February 2018

Kinesin

Kinesins are ATP dependent motor proteins that perform intracellular transport along microtubules. Kinesin is a very important protein in meiosis as well as mitosis allowing for the mitotic spindles to separate. The movement along microtubules is commonly known as anterograde transport.

Structure

The structure of Kinesin includes a motor domain which is involved in active transport. Since ATP is required for Kinesin to operate the protein consists of an ATP-binding domain rich in alpha sheets and beta pleats. Most Kinesins have two motor domains that work simultaneously. Each motor domain is comprised of 350 amino acids, which fold into the alpha-beta secondary structure. The secondary structure includes central beta beta sheets that are surrounded by alpha helices, which supercoil into within the motor head to form the motor complex.

Kinesin also has 4 chains that include monomers, which dimerize to form the protein. The protein also consists of two head domains where ATP and microtubules will bind in order to initiate movement and or transport across the cell.

Some important amino acids that are included in this protein is glutamate, lysine, leucine, and isoleucine. lysine and glutamate residues extend from the loops of the protein to fix the orientation of the subunits in order to aid in binding to the ATP molecules. The polarity of lysine glutamate also helps in stability and solubility. The hydrophobic side chain interactions within leucine and isoleucine tighten the dimerization of the protein.

Function

Disease

Kinesin is an important protein that aids with axon transport and cell division. If there is a mutation of the gene and/or a defect of the protein, then there can be transport of pathogens or defective roles relating to neural impulses and cell division. Therefore, there are many different consequences of a faulty kinesis.

Defective role in cell division:

1. If kinesin cannot help regulate and aid cell division, then the cell can start dividing uncontrollably. Cancer cells take advantage of this to proliferate and grow rapidly.

2. This can pose a threat to the organism, but if kinesin is causing rapid cell division, then it can be used as an identifiable target and treated with drugs.

Defective role in axon transport:

1. A lot of environmental toxins can inactive kinesin and can no longer aid an axon in regards to transmitting neural signals. The motor functions of the human will start to deplete and will result in axonopathy (when nerves suddenly stop functioning).

2. Diffusion is inefficient for long-distance transport which is one reason why there are action potentials in he nervous system and kinesin helps the axon transport signals. But when long-distance transport is being inhibited, then the human's nervous system starts to be malfunction and people can start showing symptoms similar to mayotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Structural highlights

This is a sample scene created with SAT to by Group, and another to make of the protein. You can make your own scenes on SAT starting from scratch or loading and editing one of these sample scenes.

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References