Intrinsic Disorder in the Kinesin Superfamily.

ABSTRACT: Kinesin molecular motors perform a myriad of intracellular transport functions. While their mechanochemical mechanisms are well understood and well-conserved throughout the superfamily, the cargo-binding and regulatory mechanisms governing the activity of kinesins are highly diverse and in general, are incompletely characterized. Here we present evidence from bioinformatic predictions indicating that most kinesin superfamily members contain significant regions of intrinsically disordered (ID) residues. ID regions can bind to multiple partners with high specificity, and are highly labile to post-translational modification and degradation signals. In kinesins, the predicted ID regions are primarily found in areas outside the motor domains, where primary sequences diverge by family, suggestin

SUBMITTER: Seeger MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3827732 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature