MOLECULAR MOTORS - SCI & TECH
News: Bengaluru
scientists help find new kind of molecular motor
What's in the news?
● An
international team of researchers, Including from the National Centre for
Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, has reported a new kind of molecular
motor.
Molecular Motors:
● Molecular
motors are a class of proteins that drive intracellular
trafficking by converting chemical energy to mechanical work along cytoskeletal
filaments. They are directed movement along cytoskeletal filaments.
● Eukaryotic
cells contain motors that help to transport
organelles to their correct cellular locations and to establish and alter
cellular morphology during cell locomotion and division.
● They
differ in the type of filament they bind to (either actin or microtubules), the
direction in which they move along the filament, and the "cargo" they
carry.
● Many
motor proteins carry membrane-enclosed
organelles, such as mitochondria, Golgi stacks, or secretory vesicles (e.g.
hormones or neurotransmitters), to their appropriate locations in the cell.
● Other
motor proteins cause cytoskeletal filaments to slide against each other,
generating the force that drives such phenomena as muscle contraction, ciliary
beating. and cell division (mitosis).
● Motor proteins use the
energy of ATP hydrolysis to move along microtubules or actin filaments.
● They
mediate the sliding of filaments relative to one another and the transport of
membrane-enclosed organelles along filament tracks.
Significance of Study:
● The
discovery of the molecular motor could have potential applications in biology
and medicine.
● The
study provides a general mechanism that is applicable to many mechanochemical proteins or assemblies that
harness chemical energy for mechanical work in cells.