Dresden 2020 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 39: Cytoskeletal Filaments II
BP 39.4: Vortrag
Freitag, 20. März 2020, 10:15–10:30, SCH A251
The kinesin-14, Ncd, drives the helical motion of microtubules around each other — •Laura Meißner1, Aniruddha Mitra2, Felix Ruhnow3, and Stefan Diez4 — 1B CUBE - Center for Molecular Bioengineering, Technische Universität Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany — 2Department of Physics and LaserLaB Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands — 3School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia — 4Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany
Within the mitotic spindle, several kinesin motors crosslink and slide microtubules. Some kinesins, including kinesin-5 and kinesin-14, have been shown to exhibit sideways components in their step cycles, but the impact of the resulting off-axis power strokes on motility and force generation in the spindle has not been studied so far. Here, we investigate kinesin-14, Ncd, driven sliding of crosslinked, fluorescently-labeled microtubules with a novel three-dimensional in vitro motility assay. We find that free microtubules, sliding in an antiparallel orientation on microtubules suspended between nanofabricated ridges, not only rotate around their own axis but also move around the suspended microtubules with right-handed helical trajectories. In contrast, microtubules crosslinked in parallel orientation are static with neither longitudinal nor helical motion. We argue that the capability of microtubule-crosslinking kinesins to cause helical motion of microtubules around each other allows for flexible filament organization, roadblock circumvention and torque generation in the mitotic spindle.