Molecular motors orchestrate pause-and-run dynamics to facilitate intracellular transport.

ABSTRACT: Intracellular transport is essential for cellular organization and function. This process is driven by molecular motors that ferry cargo along microtubules, but is characterized by intermittent motility, where cargoes switch between directed runs and prolonged pauses. The fundamental nature of these pauses has remained a mystery, specifically whether they are periods of motor detachment and passive drifting or states of active motor engagement. By combining single-particle tracking with large-scale motion analysis, we discovered that pauses are not passive. Instead, they are active, motor-driven states. We uncovered a unifying quantitative law: the diffusivity of a vesicle during a pause scales with the square of its velocity during a run. This parabolic relationship, D _eff

SUBMITTER: Shen Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12676535 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature