Insights from Conventional and Unconventional Myosins A
Structure-Function Analysis of Motor Proteins: Insights from Conventional and Unconventional Myosins A Thesis SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Karl J. Petersen IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Margaret A. Titus, Advisor David D. Thomas, Co-Advisor December 2016 © Karl J. Petersen 2016 Acknowledgements This thesis would not exist without the patient support of my advisors, Meg Titus and Dave Thomas. Any shortcomings are my own. Collaborators Holly Goodson, Anne Houdusse, and Gant Luxton also provided invaluable training and support. I am also grateful for essential services provided by departmental staff: Sarah Blakely Anderson, Octavian Cornea, Sarah Dittrich, Karen Hawkinson, Michelle Lewis, Mary Muwahid, Laurie O’Neill, Darlene Toedter, with apologies to others not listed. Thanks to friends and colleagues at the University of Minnesota: Ashley Arthur, Kelly Bower, Brett Colson, Sinziana Cornea, Chi Meng Fong, Greg Gillispie, Piyali Guhathakurta, Tejas Gupte, Tom Hays, Norma Jiménez Ramírez, Dawn Lowe, Allison MacLean, Santiago Martínez Cifuentes, Jared Matzke, Megan McCarthy, Joachim Mueller, Joe Muretta, Kurt Peterson, Mary Porter, Ewa Prochniewicz, Mike Ritt, Cosmo Saunders, Shiv Sivaramakrishnan, Ruth Sommese, Doug Tritschler, Brian Woolums. i Abstract Myosin motor proteins play fundamental roles in a multitude of cellular processes. Myosin generates force on cytoskeletal actin filaments to control cell shape, most dramatically during cytokinesis, and has a conserved role in defining cell polarity. Myosin contracts the actin cytoskeleton, ensuring prompt turnover of cellular adhesion sites, retracting the cell body during migration and development, and contracting muscle among diverse other functions. How myosins work, and why force generation is essential for their function, is in many cases an open question.
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