Motor Proteins & Filaments Moving in the Cell

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Motor Proteins & Filaments Moving in the Cell δ Name: ________________ Period: ____ Motor Proteins & Filaments Moving in the Cell Motor Proteins You’ve already learned about proteins and how they usually operate (recall what you learned about active sites, substrates, and the lock & key analogy). As previously discussed, proteins are used for many different jobs in your body. This worksheet will focus on a specific type of protein: Motor Proteins. Motor proteins are proteins that generate movement. Motors, like the motors in machines such as electric cars, are what convert energy into movement. The “motor” part of the term “motor protein” means that these special kinds of proteins work the same way. Just like how a motor needs to be supplied with energy (in the form of electricity) in order to move, a motor protein needs to be supplied with energy in order to move. The diagram below shows one special kind of motor protein called Kinesin, and how it uses a special kind of energy (chemical energy stored in a molecule called ATP) to move. The “tail” section of Kinesin grabs onto things inside of a cell (labeled “transport vesicle” in the diagram above), and the two “heads” of Kinesin grip onto a track that runs across the entire cell. When ATP reaches an active site on the head of Kinesin, it takes a step forward. Every step that Kinesin wants to make, it needs a molecule of ATP to do it. You can imagine this protein like it’s a motorcycle; if you want your motorcycle to drive down the street, you need to make sure it has gas in its tank. If you stop giving it gas or it runs out, it stops moving. If the motorcycle stops moving, you get stranded on the street and can’t get where you need to go. Without motor proteins like Kinesin, things inside your cells would take a lot longer to get where they need to go. In some cases, they wouldn’t be able to get there at all. Here’s another analogy that may help you understand why motor proteins are necessary: A river flows in one direction. If you put a paper boat on that river, you can expect it to flow downstream with the water, but what if you wanted to get something to a location upstream? If you put a motor on the boat, then it could fight the direction of the flow of the water and get upstream. There are some locations in your cells that you can consider “upstream” – places that certain materials either can’t get to without help or are difficult to get to. Motor Proteins are like speedboats you can use to drive up a stream to transport materials: fast, goes only down a set path, and allows you to move things in a direction you couldn’t otherwise move them. Filaments These “tracks,” “rivers,” or “streets” that Kinesin walks down are actually a type of Filament. Filaments are long, rope-like structures that run through the cytoplasm in a cell. There are three different types of filaments in a cell, all Joanis - 4/27/2020 δ of which are shown in the table below. The “subunits” that they’re made of are also all proteins, so the filaments themselves are just very large bundles of individual proteins. Actin filaments interact with a different kind of motor protein called Myosin (pictured right). Together, actin and myosin can do the following things: a. Expand and contract to move entire cells from one place to another b. Pinch a cell membrane so that a cell can split into two cells c. Move the cytoplasm in a plant cell around the cell (like water moving in a stream) Intermediate filaments are like anchors or supporting-beams that keep things in the cell in place. Things don’t move along intermediate filaments, and intermediate filaments don’t move either; they stay in place so that important parts of the cell like the nucleus don’t move around. Microtubules are the most important type of filament for moving things inside of the cell. The types of filaments that Kinesin walk on are microtubules. They’re like the streets and highways of the cell, and Kinesin and some other motor proteins are the trucks that carry cargo from one place to another. They extend all throughout the cell, originating from (coming from) the centrosomes (pictured below). Joanis - 4/27/2020 δ Answer the following questions to show your understanding of motor proteins and filaments. Answer each question using full sentences. The more developed/detailed your answer, the better. If you don’t know how you would respond to a question, write about why you can’t answer it and what extra information you would need in order to develop an answer: 1. Motor proteins are a type of protein, as their name suggests. Are filaments a type of protein? 2. What special kind of energy does Kinase need in order to do its job? 3. What does Kinase do in a cell? 4. If a cell in your body didn’t have Kinase in it, do you think that cell would be healthy? Explain why or why not. 5. What do you think would happen to a cell that had Kinase, but did not have any microtubules? Explain your answer. Joanis - 4/27/2020 δ 6. All the kinase in a cell was made wrong, and lacks the active cite necessary to accept ATP as a substrate. What will the cell not be able to do? Explain your answer. 7. [CHALLENGE QUESTION] You are attacked by an evil scientist with a devious laser beam that destroys all of the actin filaments in your body! He has also damaged your DNA, so your cells are not able to create any more actin. Would you be able to grow taller if your cells didn’t have any actin filaments? Explain your answer. Joanis - 4/27/2020 .
Recommended publications
  • Mechanical Design of Translocating Motor Proteins
    Cell Biochem Biophys (2009) 54:11–22 DOI 10.1007/s12013-009-9049-4 REVIEW PAPER Mechanical Design of Translocating Motor Proteins Wonmuk Hwang Æ Matthew J. Lang Published online: 19 May 2009 Ó Humana Press Inc. 2009 Abstract Translocating motors generate force and move Introduction along a biofilament track to achieve diverse functions including gene transcription, translation, intracellular cargo Motor proteins form distinct classes in the protein universe transport, protein degradation, and muscle contraction. as they can convert chemical energy directly into mechan- Advances in single molecule manipulation experiments, ical work. Among them, translocating motors move along structural biology, and computational analysis are making biopolymer tracks, such as nucleic acids, polypeptides, or it possible to consider common mechanical design princi- quaternary biofilament structures like F-actin or microtu- ples of these diverse families of motors. Here, we propose a bule (Kolomeisky and Fisher proposed the term ‘‘translo- mechanical parts list that include track, energy conversion case’’ for these motors [41]. However, we prefer to use machinery, and moving parts. Energy is supplied not just ‘‘translocating motor,’’ since translocase refers to mem- by burning of a fuel molecule, but there are other sources brane-bound motors such as SecA, whose function is to or sinks of free energy, by binding and release of a fuel or translocate a protein across the membrane [24]). Movement products, or similarly between the motor and the track. is an essential part of their function. For example, RNA Dynamic conformational changes of the motor domain can polymerase (RNAP) walks along the DNA molecule and be regarded as controlling the flow of free energy to and transcribes the genetic code into RNA [25].
    [Show full text]
  • UCSD MOLECULE PAGES Doi:10.6072/H0.MP.A002549.01 Volume 1, Issue 2, 2012 Copyright UC Press, All Rights Reserved
    UCSD MOLECULE PAGES doi:10.6072/H0.MP.A002549.01 Volume 1, Issue 2, 2012 Copyright UC Press, All rights reserved. Review Article Open Access WAVE2 Tadaomi Takenawa1, Shiro Suetsugu2, Daisuke Yamazaki3, Shusaku Kurisu1 WASP family verprolin-homologous protein 2 (WAVE2, also called WASF2) was originally identified by its sequence similarity at the carboxy-terminal VCA (verprolin, cofilin/central, acidic) domain with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP) and N-WASP (neural WASP). In mammals, WAVE2 is ubiquitously expressed, and its two paralogs, WAVE1 (also called suppressor of cAMP receptor 1, SCAR1) and WAVE3, are predominantly expressed in the brain. The VCA domain of WASP and WAVE family proteins can activate the actin-related protein 2/3 (Arp2/3) complex, a major actin nucleator in cells. Proteins that can activate the Arp2/3 complex are now collectively known as nucleation-promoting factors (NPFs), and the WASP and WAVE families are a founding class of NPFs. The WAVE family has an amino-terminal WAVE homology domain (WHD domain, also called the SCAR homology domain, SHD) followed by the proline-rich region that interacts with various Src-homology 3 (SH3) domain proteins. The VCA domain located at the C-terminus. WAVE2, like WAVE1 and WAVE3, constitutively forms a huge heteropentameric protein complex (the WANP complex), binding through its WHD domain with Abi-1 (or its paralogs, Abi-2 and Abi-3), HSPC300 (also called Brick1), Nap1 (also called Hem-2 and NCKAP1), Sra1 (also called p140Sra1 and CYFIP1; its paralog is PIR121 or CYFIP2). The WANP complex is recruited to the plasma membrane by cooperative action of activated Rac GTPases and acidic phosphoinositides.
    [Show full text]
  • Theory of Cytoskeletal Reorganization During Crosslinker-Mediated Mitotic Spindle Assembly
    bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/419135; this version posted March 1, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. Theory of cytoskeletal reorganization during crosslinker-mediated mitotic spindle assembly A. R. Lamson, C. J. Edelmaier, M. A. Glaser, and M. D. Betterton Abstract Cells grow, move, and respond to outside stimuli by large-scale cytoskeletal reorganization. A prototypical example of cytoskeletal remodeling is mitotic spindle assembly, during which micro- tubules nucleate, undergo dynamic instability, bundle, and organize into a bipolar spindle. Key mech- anisms of this process include regulated filament polymerization, crosslinking, and motor-protein activity. Remarkably, using passive crosslinkers, fission yeast can assemble a bipolar spindle in the absence of motor proteins. We develop a torque-balance model that describes this reorganization due to dynamic microtubule bundles, spindle-pole bodies, the nuclear envelope, and passive crosslink- ers to predict spindle-assembly dynamics. We compare these results to those obtained with kinetic Monte Carlo-Brownian dynamics simulations, which include crosslinker-binding kinetics and other stochastic effects. Our results show that rapid crosslinker reorganization to microtubule overlaps facilitates crosslinker-driven spindle assembly, a testable prediction for future experiments. Combin- ing these two modeling techniques, we illustrate a general method for studying cytoskeletal network reorganization. 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/419135; this version posted March 1, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved.
    [Show full text]
  • Construction and Loss of Bacterial Flagellar Filaments
    biomolecules Review Construction and Loss of Bacterial Flagellar Filaments Xiang-Yu Zhuang and Chien-Jung Lo * Department of Physics and Graduate Institute of Biophysics, National Central University, Taoyuan City 32001, Taiwan; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 31 July 2020; Accepted: 4 November 2020; Published: 9 November 2020 Abstract: The bacterial flagellar filament is an extracellular tubular protein structure that acts as a propeller for bacterial swimming motility. It is connected to the membrane-anchored rotary bacterial flagellar motor through a short hook. The bacterial flagellar filament consists of approximately 20,000 flagellins and can be several micrometers long. In this article, we reviewed the experimental works and models of flagellar filament construction and the recent findings of flagellar filament ejection during the cell cycle. The length-dependent decay of flagellar filament growth data supports the injection-diffusion model. The decay of flagellar growth rate is due to reduced transportation of long-distance diffusion and jamming. However, the filament is not a permeant structure. Several bacterial species actively abandon their flagella under starvation. Flagellum is disassembled when the rod is broken, resulting in an ejection of the filament with a partial rod and hook. The inner membrane component is then diffused on the membrane before further breakdown. These new findings open a new field of bacterial macro-molecule assembly, disassembly, and signal transduction. Keywords: self-assembly; injection-diffusion model; flagellar ejection 1. Introduction Since Antonie van Leeuwenhoek observed animalcules by using his single-lens microscope in the 18th century, we have entered a new era of microbiology.
    [Show full text]
  • Review of Molecular Motors
    REVIEWS CYTOSKELETAL MOTORS Moving into the cell: single-molecule studies of molecular motors in complex environments Claudia Veigel*‡ and Christoph F. Schmidt§ Abstract | Much has been learned in the past decades about molecular force generation. Single-molecule techniques, such as atomic force microscopy, single-molecule fluorescence microscopy and optical tweezers, have been key in resolving the mechanisms behind the power strokes, ‘processive’ steps and forces of cytoskeletal motors. However, it remains unclear how single force generators are integrated into composite mechanical machines in cells to generate complex functions such as mitosis, locomotion, intracellular transport or mechanical sensory transduction. Using dynamic single-molecule techniques to track, manipulate and probe cytoskeletal motor proteins will be crucial in providing new insights. Molecular motors are machines that convert free energy, data suggest that during the force-generating confor- mostly obtained from ATP hydrolysis, into mechanical mational change, known as the power stroke, the lever work. The cytoskeletal motor proteins of the myosin and arm of myosins8,11 rotates around its base at the catalytic kinesin families, which interact with actin filaments and domain11–17, which can cause the displacement of bound microtubules, respectively, are the best understood. Less cargo by several nanometres18 (FIG. 1B). In kinesins, the is known about the dynein family of cytoskeletal motors, switching of the neck linker (~13 amino acids connecting which interact with microtubules. Cytoskeletal motors the catalytic core to the cargo-binding stalk domain) from power diverse forms of motility, ranging from the move- an ‘undocked’ state to a state in which it is ‘docked’ to the ment of entire cells (as occurs in muscular contraction catalytic domain, is the equivalent of the myosin power or cell locomotion) to intracellular structural dynamics stroke10.
    [Show full text]
  • A Standardized Kinesin Nomenclature • Lawrence Et Al
    JCB: COMMENT A standardized kinesin nomenclature Carolyn J. Lawrence,1 R. Kelly Dawe,1,2 Karen R. Christie,3,4 Don W. Cleveland,3,5 Scott C. Dawson,3,6 Sharyn A. Endow,3,7 Lawrence S.B. Goldstein,3,8 Holly V. Goodson,3,9 Nobutaka Hirokawa,3,10 Jonathon Howard,3,11 Russell L. Malmberg,1,3 J. Richard McIntosh,3,12 Harukata Miki,3,10 Timothy J. Mitchison,3,13 Yasushi Okada,3,10 Anireddy S.N. Reddy,3,14 William M. Saxton,3,15 Manfred Schliwa,3,16 Jonathan M. Scholey,3,17 Ronald D. Vale,3,18 Claire E. Walczak,3,19 and Linda Wordeman3,20 1Department of Plant Biology, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602 2Department of Genetics, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602 3These authors contributed equally to this work and are listed alphabetically 4Department of Genetics, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 5Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, 3080 CMM-East, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093 6Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 7Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710 8Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 9Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46628 10Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Medicine, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan 11Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, 01307 Dresden, Germany 12Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 13Institute for Chemistry and Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115 Downloaded from 14Department of Biology and Program in Cell and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523 15Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405 16Adolf-Butenandt-Institut, Zellbiologie, University of Munich, Schillerstr.
    [Show full text]
  • The Kinesin Walk: a Dynamic Model with Elastically Coupled Heads
    Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA Vol. 93, pp. 6775-6779, June 1996 Biophysics The kinesin walk: A dynamic model with elastically coupled heads IMRE DERENYI AND TAMA'S VICSEK Department of Atomic Physics, Eotvos University, Budapest, Puskin u 5-7, 1088 Hungary Communicated by Leo P. Kadanoff, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, February 26, 1996 (received for review November 28, 1995) ABSTRACT Recently individual two-headed kinesin mol- of the related transport phenomena. These models (12-19), ecules have been studied in in vitro motility assays revealing a except that of Ajdari (20), consider cases in which the internal number of their peculiar transport properties. In this paper degree of freedom of the molecular motors is not taken into we propose a simple and robust model for the kinesin stepping account. The purpose of the present work is to define and process with elastically coupled Brownian heads that show all investigate a dynamic model for the kinesin walk that has an of these properties. The analytic and numerical treatment of internal degree of freedom and results in a full agreement with our model results in a very good fit to the experimental data the experimental data for the range of its parameters allowed and practically has no free parameters. Changing the values by the known estimates for the lower and upper bounds of ofthe parameters in the restricted range allowed by the related these parameters. experimental estimates has almost no effect on the shape of There are two basic classes of possible models for the the curves and results mainly in a variation of the zero load stepping of kinesin (21).
    [Show full text]
  • Kinesin Motility Is Driven by Subdomain Dynamics Wonmuk Hwang1,2,3*, Matthew J Lang4,5*, Martin Karplus6,7*
    RESEARCH ARTICLE Kinesin motility is driven by subdomain dynamics Wonmuk Hwang1,2,3*, Matthew J Lang4,5*, Martin Karplus6,7* 1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, United States; 2Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, United States; 3School of Computational Sciences, Korea Institute for Advanced Study, Seoul, Korea; 4Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States; 5Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, United States; 6Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States; 7Laboratoire de Chimie Biophysique, ISIS, Universite´ de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France Abstract The microtubule (MT)-associated motor protein kinesin utilizes its conserved ATPase head to achieve diverse motility characteristics. Despite considerable knowledge about how its ATPase activity and MT binding are coupled to the motility cycle, the atomic mechanism of the core events remain to be found. To obtain insights into the mechanism, we performed 38.5 microseconds of all-atom molecular dynamics simulations of kinesin-MT complexes in different nucleotide states. Local subdomain dynamics were found to be essential for nucleotide processing. Catalytic water molecules are dynamically organized by the switch domains of the nucleotide binding pocket while ATP is torsionally strained. Hydrolysis products are ’pulled’ by switch-I, and a new ATP is ’captured’ by a concerted motion of the a0/L5/switch-I trio. The dynamic and wet kinesin-MT interface is tuned for rapid interactions while maintaining specificity. The proposed *For correspondence: mechanism provides the flexibility necessary for walking in the crowded cellular environment. [email protected] (WH); DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.28948.001 [email protected] (MJL); [email protected] (MK) Competing interests: The authors declare that no Introduction competing interests exist.
    [Show full text]
  • Tension on the Linker Gates the ATP-Dependent Release of Dynein from Microtubules
    ARTICLE Received 4 Apr 2014 | Accepted 3 Jul 2014 | Published 11 Aug 2014 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5587 Tension on the linker gates the ATP-dependent release of dynein from microtubules Frank B. Cleary1, Mark A. Dewitt1, Thomas Bilyard2, Zaw Min Htet2, Vladislav Belyy1, Danna D. Chan2, Amy Y. Chang2 & Ahmet Yildiz2 Cytoplasmic dynein is a dimeric motor that transports intracellular cargoes towards the minus end of microtubules (MTs). In contrast to other processive motors, stepping of the dynein motor domains (heads) is not precisely coordinated. Therefore, the mechanism of dynein processivity remains unclear. Here, by engineering the mechanical and catalytic properties of the motor, we show that dynein processivity minimally requires a single active head and a second inert MT-binding domain. Processivity arises from a high ratio of MT-bound to unbound time, and not from interhead communication. In addition, nucleotide-dependent microtubule release is gated by tension on the linker domain. Intramolecular tension sensing is observed in dynein’s stepping motion at high interhead separations. On the basis of these results, we propose a quantitative model for the stepping characteristics of dynein and its response to chemical and mechanical perturbation. 1 Biophysics Graduate Group, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. 2 Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to A.Y. (email: [email protected]). NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 5:4587 | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5587 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications 1 & 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. ARTICLE NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5587 ytoplasmic dynein is responsible for nearly all microtubule dynein’s MT-binding domain (MTBD) is located at the end of a (MT) minus-end-directed transport in eukaryotes1.In coiled-coil stalk10.
    [Show full text]
  • Single-Molecule Analysis of a Novel Kinesin Motor Protein
    Single-Molecule Analysis of a Novel Kinesin Motor Protein Jeremy Meinke Advisor: Dr. Weihong Qiu Oregon State University, Department of Physics June 7, 2017 Abstract Kinesins are intracellular motor proteins that transform chemical energy into mechanical energy through ATP hydrolysis to move along microtubules. Kinesin roles can vary among transportation, regulation, and spindle alignment within most cells. Many kinesin have been found to move towards the plus end of microtubules at a steady velocity. For this experiment, we investigate BimC - a kinesin-5 as- sociated with mitotic spindle regulation - under high salt conditions. Using single molecule imaging with Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy, we found BimC to be directed towards the minus end of microtubules at a high velocity of 597±214 nm/s (mean±S.D, n=124). BimC then joins the few other kinesin found so far to be minus-end-directed. However, preliminary results at low salt condi- tions suggest that BimC switches towards the plus end. BimC could very well be an early example of a kinesin motor protein that is directionally-dependent upon ionic strength. These results suggest multiple branches of further investigation into directionally-dependent kinesin proteins and what purposes they might have. Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Kinesin Proteins . 1 1.2 Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy . 3 1.3 Protein Motion Analysis . 3 2 Methods 5 2.1 Design, Expression, and Purification of BimC . 5 2.2 Single Molecule Imaging . 7 2.3 Analysis of Data/Results . 7 3 Results 9 3.1 Single Molecule Imaging of BimC . 9 3.2 Directionality of BimC in High Salt Conditions .
    [Show full text]
  • Kinesin Kip2 Enhances Microtubule Growth in Vitro Through Length
    SHORT REPORT Kinesin Kip2 enhances microtubule growth in vitro through length-dependent feedback on polymerization and catastrophe Anneke Hibbel1,6, Aliona Bogdanova1, Mohammed Mahamdeh2, Anita Jannasch1,3, Marko Storch4, Erik Scha¨ ffer3, Dimitris Liakopoulos5, Jonathon Howard2* 1Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany; 2Department of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, United States; 3Zentrum fu¨ r Molekularbiologie der Pflanzen, Eberhard-Karls- Universita¨ t, Tu¨ bingen, Germany; 4Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom; 5CRBM-CRNS, Montpellier, France; 6Institute of Biochemistry, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Abstract The size and position of mitotic spindles is determined by the lengths of their constituent microtubules. Regulation of microtubule length requires feedback to set the balance between growth and shrinkage. Whereas negative feedback mechanisms for microtubule length control, based on depolymerizing kinesins and severing proteins, have been studied extensively, positive feedback mechanisms are not known. Here, we report that the budding yeast kinesin Kip2 is a microtubule polymerase and catastrophe inhibitor in vitro that uses its processive motor activity as part of a feedback loop to further promote microtubule growth. Positive feedback arises because longer microtubules bind more motors, which walk to the ends where they reinforce *For correspondence: jonathon. growth and inhibit catastrophe. We propose that positive feedback, common in biochemical [email protected] pathways to switch between signaling states, can also be used in a mechanical signaling pathway to Competing interests: The switch between structural states, in this case between short and long polymers. authors declare that no DOI: 10.7554/eLife.10542.001 competing interests exist.
    [Show full text]
  • Bee1, a Yeast Protein with Homology to Wiscott-Aldrich Syndrome Protein, Is Critical for the Assembly of Cortical Actin Cytoskel
    Published February 10, 1997 Bee1, a Yeast Protein with Homology to Wiscott-Aldrich Syndrome Protein, Is Critical for the Assembly of Cortical Actin Cytoskeleton Rong Li Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115 Abstract. Yeast protein, Bee1, exhibits sequence ho- associated patches, actin filaments in the buds of Dbee1 mology to Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP), cells form aberrant bundles that do not contain most of a human protein that may link signaling pathways to the cortical cytoskeletal components. It is significant the actin cytoskeleton. Mutations in WASP are the pri- that Dbee1 is the only mutation reported so far that mary cause of Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, character- abolishes cortical actin patches in the bud. Bee1 protein ized by immuno-deficiencies and defects in blood cell is localized to actin patches and interacts with Sla1p, a morphogenesis. This report describes the character- Src homology 3 domain–containing protein previously ization of Bee1 protein function in budding yeast. Dis- implicated in actin assembly and function. Thus, Bee1 ruption of BEE1 causes a striking change in the organi- protein may be a crucial component of a cytoskeletal zation of actin filaments, resulting in defects in budding complex that controls the assembly and organization of Downloaded from and cytokinesis. Rather than assemble into cortically actin filaments at the cell cortex. roteins that are conserved between yeast and mam- In addition to the conserved actin-binding proteins, mals are likely to carry out fundamental cellular building blocks of protein interactions common to mam- P functions. The complete yeast genome database malian cytoskeletal and signaling molecules are also found on April 4, 2017 provides a facile route for the identification of these pro- in yeast.
    [Show full text]