Tug-of-war of microtubule filaments at the boundary of a kinesin- and dynein-patterned surface.

ABSTRACT: Intracellular cargo is transported by multiple motor proteins. Because of the force balance of motors with mixed polarities, cargo moves bidirectionally to achieve biological functions. Here, we propose a microtubule gliding assay for a tug-of-war study of kinesin and dynein. A boundary of the two motor groups is created by photolithographically patterning gold to selectively attach kinesin to the glass and dynein to the gold surface using a self-assembled monolayer. The relationship between the ratio of two antagonistic motor numbers and the velocity is derived from a force-velocity relationship for each motor to calculate the detachment force and motor backward velocity. Although the tug-of-war involves >100 motors, values are calculated for a single molecule and reflect the collective d

SUBMITTER: Ikuta J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4055898 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature