Modeling study of kinesin-13 MCAK microtubule depolymerase

Mitotic centromere-associated kinesin (MCAK) motor protein is a typical member of the kinesin-13 family, which can depolymerize microtubules from both plus and minus ends. A critical issue for the MCAK motor is how it performs the depolymerase activity. To address the issue, the pathway of the MCAK...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European biophysics journal 2024-08, Vol.53 (5-6), p.339-354
Main Author: Xie, Ping
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biochemistry
Biological and Medical Physics
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biophysics
Cell Biology
Depolymerization
Drosophila
Humans
Kinesin
Kinesins - chemistry
Kinesins - metabolism
Life Sciences
Membrane Biology
Microtubules
Microtubules - metabolism
Models, Molecular
Molecular motors
Mutants
Mutation
Nanotechnology
Neurobiology
Original Article
Protein Multimerization
Tubulin
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:Mitotic centromere-associated kinesin (MCAK) motor protein is a typical member of the kinesin-13 family, which can depolymerize microtubules from both plus and minus ends. A critical issue for the MCAK motor is how it performs the depolymerase activity. To address the issue, the pathway of the MCAK motor moving on microtubules and depolymerizing the microtubules is presented here. On the basis of the pathway, the dynamics of both the wild-type and mutant MCAK motors is studied theoretically, which include the full-length MCAK, the full-length MCAK with mutations in the α4-helix of the motor domain, the mutant full-length MCAK with a neutralized neck, the monomeric MCAK and the mutant monomeric MCAK with a neutralized neck. The studies show that a single dimeric MCAK motor can depolymerize microtubules in a processive manner, with either one tubulin or two tubulins being removed per times. The theoretical results are in agreement with the available experimental data. Moreover, predicted results are provided.
ISSN:0175-7571
1432-1017
1432-1017
DOI:10.1007/s00249-024-01718-8