Protein harnesses power of 'silly walks'
The 'stiff-legged' walk of a motor protein along a tightrope-like filament has been captured for the first time.
The 'stiff-legged' walk of a motor protein along a tightrope-like filament has been captured for the first time.
Bio & Medicine
Apr 24, 2015
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Molecular "motors" are at the root of most biological movement. They propel cell components, whole cells, and even our muscles on command. Barbara Imperiali and a team from the Massachusetts Institute of ...
Biochemistry
May 10, 2011
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Every living thing moves—prey from predators, ants to crumbs, leaves toward sunlight. But at the most fundamental level, scientists are still struggling to grasp the physics behind how our own cells build, move, transport ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 30, 2019
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Myosins are motor proteins that convert chemical energy into mechanical work, generating force and movement. Myosin II generates forces that are essential to drive cell movements and cell shape changes that generate tissue ...
Biotechnology
Oct 28, 2019
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By tracking the flow of information in a cell preparing to split, Johns Hopkins scientists have identified a protein mechanism that coordinates and regulates the dynamics of shape change necessary for division of a single ...
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 5, 2010
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Each time you flex your bicep, millions of molecular motors work together in a complex process inside your muscle. These motors—called myosin—are chemically-powered proteins. Combinations of them perform different muscular ...
Engineering
Sep 13, 2017
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Cells rely on tiny molecular motors to deliver cargo, such as mRNA and organelles, within the cell. The critical nature of this transport system is evidenced by the fact that disruption of motors by genetic defects leads ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 21, 2009
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A visualization made from nearly 100,000 electron microscope images has revealed the ingenious way a protein involved in muscle activity shuts itself down to conserve energy.
Molecular & Computational biology
Dec 2, 2020
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Chromosomes move faster than we first thought. Research published in BioMed Central's open access journal, Genome Biology, details new findings about the way chromosomes move around the nucleus when leaving the proliferative ...
Biotechnology
Jan 13, 2010
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The motor protein myosin-V, which hauls molecular cargoes around cells by ratcheting along filaments of actin, switches between two different molecular mechanisms of movement depending on the environment. This finding by ...
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 21, 2012
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