Phys.org news tagged with:motor proteinshttp://phys.org/
en-usPhys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine.Study shows how neurons reach their final destinationsAs the human brain develops, neurons leave their birthplace and take a trip to distant locations. Once they reach their final destination, the neurons then send out axons and dendrites—the branches that receive and send messages from other cells.http://phys.org/news/2016-05-neurons-destinations.html
Cell & Microbiology Tue, 17 May 2016 14:31:52 ESTnews382714302Researchers show that four-stranded DNA is formed and unfoldedResearchers at Umeå University in Sweden have discovered that specific DNA sequences that are rich in the DNA building block guanine in the yeast species, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, can form four-stranded DNA. In a study published today in the journal Nucleic Acids Research, the researchers also show that the motor protein Pfh1 can unfold these DNA structures and thus contribute to maintaining an intact genome.http://phys.org/news/2016-05-four-stranded-dna-unfolded.html
Biotechnology Mon, 16 May 2016 04:20:31 ESTnews382591183Microtubules, assemble: New research may lead to better understanding of self-organization in cellsWhat bones are to bodies, the cytoskeleton is to cells. The cytoskeleton maintains cellular structure, builds appendages like flagella and, together with motor proteins, powers cellular movement, transport, and division. Microtubules are a critical component of the cytoskeleton, vital for cell division and, because of that, an excellent target for chemotherapy drugs.http://phys.org/news/2016-01-microtubules-self-organization-cells.html
Cell & Microbiology Thu, 28 Jan 2016 13:04:01 ESTnews373208632Molecular motor grows cell's microtubulesMotor proteins that pause at the ends of microtubules and produce pushing forces can also stimulate their growth, according to researchers at Penn State. The proteins' function could be a critical component in understanding cell division and nerve branching and growth.http://phys.org/news/2015-10-molecular-motor-cell-microtubules.html
Cell & Microbiology Mon, 26 Oct 2015 12:01:46 ESTnews365079699Swinging on 'monkey bars': Motor proteins caught in the actThe first images of motor proteins in action are published in the journal Nature Communications today.http://phys.org/news/2015-09-monkey-bars-motor-proteins-caught.html
Cell & Microbiology Mon, 14 Sep 2015 05:00:05 ESTnews361422976Mechanism of biological multi-fuel engineUniversity of Tokyo researchers have constructed the atomic model structure of the protein complex that corresponds to the stator (stationary part of a motor that surrounds the rotating part of a motor) of the E. coli flagellar motor for the first time by molecular simulation based on previously published experimental data, and elucidated the mechanism by which ions, including hydrogen ions (protons), are transferred through the stator.http://phys.org/news/2015-07-mechanism-biological-multi-fuel.html
Cell & Microbiology Tue, 07 Jul 2015 08:10:01 ESTnews355473552Protein 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.http://phys.org/news/2015-04-protein-harnesses-power-silly.html
Bio & Medicine Fri, 24 Apr 2015 07:48:18 ESTnews349080486Motor proteins prefer slow, steady movement takes at least two motor proteins to tango, according to Rice University scientists who discovered the workhorses that move cargo in cells are highly sensitive to the proximity of their peers.http://phys.org/news/2015-02-motor-proteins-steady-movement.html
Cell & Microbiology Mon, 23 Feb 2015 11:07:14 ESTnews343911933Nanoshuttle wear and tear: It's the mileage, not the ageAs nanomachine design rapidly advances, researchers are moving from wondering if the nanomachine works to how long it will work. This is an especially important question as there are so many potential applications, for instance, for medical uses, including drug delivery, early diagnosis, disease monitoring, instrumentation, and surgery. In a new study led by Henry Hess, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering, researchers observed a molecular shuttle powered by kinesin motor proteins and found it to degrade when operating, marking the first time, they say, that degradation has been studied in detail in an active, autonomous nanomachine.http://phys.org/news/2015-01-nanoshuttle-mileage-age.html
Bio & Medicine Mon, 26 Jan 2015 11:00:15 ESTnews341482607A contractile gel that stores light energyLiving systems have the ability to produce collective molecular motions that have an effect at the macroscale, such as a muscle that contracts via the concerted action of protein motors. In order to reproduce this phenomenon, a team at CNRS's Institut Charles Sadron led by Nicolas Giuseppone, professor at the Université de Strasbourg, has made a polymer gel that is able to contract through the action of artificial molecular motors. When activated by light, these nanoscale motors twist the polymer chains in the gel, which as a result contracts by several centimeters. Another advantage is that the new material is able to store the light energy absorbed. This paper is published in Nature Nanotechnology dated 19 January 2015.http://phys.org/news/2015-01-contractile-gel-energy.html
Nanomaterials Tue, 20 Jan 2015 07:21:11 ESTnews340960849Revealing the inner workings of a molecular motorIn research published in the Journal of Cell Biology, scientists from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan have made important steps toward understanding how dynein—a "molecular motor"—walks along tube-like structures in the cell to move cellular cargo from the outer structures toward the cell body of neurons. The action of this molecule is important for a number of cell functions including axonal transport and chromosome segregation, and its dysfunction is known to lead to a congenital developmental brain disorder known as lissencephaly.http://phys.org/news/2015-01-revealing-molecular-motor.html
Cell & Microbiology Mon, 12 Jan 2015 09:42:02 ESTnews340278112Bioengineering team builds molecular motors to further the study of cell function(Phys.org) —In every cell in your body, tiny protein motors are toiling away to keep you going. Moving muscles, dividing cells, twisting DNA – they are the workhorses of biology. But there is still uncertainty about how they function. To help biologists in the quest to know more, a team of Stanford bioengineers has designed a suite of protein motors that can be controlled remotely by light.http://phys.org/news/2014-08-bioengineering-team-molecular-motors-cell.html
Bio & Medicine Wed, 06 Aug 2014 06:44:34 ESTnews326526262Hitchhiking nanotubes show how cells stir themselves(Phys.org) —Chemical engineers from Rice University and biophysicists from Georg-August Universität Göttingen in Germany and the VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands have successfully tracked single molecules inside living cells with carbon nanotubes.http://phys.org/news/2014-05-hitchhiking-nanotubes-cells.html
Bio & Medicine Fri, 30 May 2014 06:36:54 ESTnews320650528Friction harnessed by proteins helps organize cell division(Phys.org) —A football-shaped structure, known as the mitotic spindle, makes cell division possible for many living things. This piece of cellular architecture, responsible for dividing up genetic material, is in constant flux. The filaments that form it grow and shrink, while motor-like molecules burn energy pushing them about. To ensure the complex process proceeds in an orderly fashion, molecular fasteners pin the filaments together in certain places, and new research in Tarun Kapoor's Laboratory of Chemistry and Cell Biology helps explain how they do it.http://phys.org/news/2014-04-friction-harnessed-proteins-cell-division.html
Cell & Microbiology Wed, 16 Apr 2014 07:22:22 ESTnews316851732Kif15: The acrobatic motor protein that could pave the way for new cancer therapiesResearchers at Warwick Medical School have shown for the first time how a protein motor, Kif15, uses acrobatic flexibility to navigate within the mitotic spindle. Understanding how it works could prove vital for the development of targeted cancer therapies.http://phys.org/news/2014-03-kif15-acrobatic-motor-protein-pave.html
Cell & Microbiology Wed, 26 Mar 2014 10:35:44 ESTnews315048936Some motor proteins cooperate better than othersRice University researchers have engineered cells to characterize how sensitively altering the cooperative functions of motor proteins can regulate the transport of organelles.http://phys.org/news/2014-01-motor-proteins-cooperate.html
Cell & Microbiology Thu, 09 Jan 2014 16:09:01 ESTnews308506123Elucidating biological cells' transport mechanismsA new study focuses on the motion of motor proteins in living cells, applying a physicist's tool called non-equilibrium statistical mechanicshttp://phys.org/news/2013-12-elucidating-biological-cells-mechanisms.html
General Physics Fri, 20 Dec 2013 09:20:01 ESTnews306750416The dynamic cytoskeleton in bacterial cell division(Phys.org) —The cytoskeletal proteins of eukaryotes polymerize into self-organized patterns even as pure solutions. However, to see more complex dynamics, like filament sliding or rotation, various motor proteins and cofactors usually need to be added to the solution. The ancestral bacterial proteins of actin and tubulin, namely FtsA and FtsZ, play a key role in bacterial cell division through the formation of a cytoskeletal structure known as the "Z" ring. Researchers Martin Loose and Tim Mitchison have studied these bacterial proteins in solution, along with bits of reconstituted membrane, and found that they support complex dynamics in the absence of any motor proteins. In their recent paper in Nature Cell Biology, they describe how these behaviors can spontaneously emerge.http://phys.org/news/2013-12-dynamic-cytoskeleton-bacterial-cell-division.html
Cell & Microbiology Tue, 10 Dec 2013 11:59:31 ESTnews305899094Two-way traffic enable proteins to get where needed, avoid diseaseIt turns out that your messenger RNA may catch more than one ride to get where it's going.http://phys.org/news/2013-11-two-way-traffic-enable-proteins-disease.html
Cell & Microbiology Mon, 25 Nov 2013 12:14:09 ESTnews304604025All aboard the nanotrain networkTiny self-assembling transport networks, powered by nano-scale motors and controlled by DNA, have been developed by scientists at Oxford University and Warwick University.http://phys.org/news/2013-11-aboard-nanotrain-network.html
Bio & Medicine Sun, 10 Nov 2013 13:00:01 ESTnews303234694Dissecting the brain's primary developmental engine(Phys.org) —Last month, researchers reported the creation of the first primitive brain-like structures made from human stem cells. To create the complex morphology of these cerebral organoids, cells within a proliferating neuroectodermal layer were converted into so-called radial glial precursors (RGPs), which then rough out the basic floor plan of the cerebrum. As seen in the image above, the migrating and replicating RPGs span the thickness of the telencephalon in a normally developing brain, and provide a scaffolding for later arriving cells to subsequently migrate on themselves. A new paper published in Cell describes how the division of RPGs is tightly controlled by the location of the nucleus as it is motored about between the poles of the extended cell. The authors expand upon earlier work detailing the precise cytoskeletal couplers which power these translocations in specific directions, and ultimately piece together how these motor proteins, specifically dynein, are harnessed by nuclear pore complexes. Once this motor-nuclear mating occurs, migration in the apical direction (in this context, apical is towards the ventricle and basal is towards the surface) is initiated followed by subsequent entry into mitosis.http://phys.org/news/2013-09-brain-primary-developmental.html
Cell & Microbiology Wed, 18 Sep 2013 13:50:01 ESTnews298729862Identification of a plant-specific nanomachine regulating nuclear movementA group led by Professor Ikuko Hara-Nishimura (Department of Botany, Graduate School of Science) revealed the molecular mechanism underlying nuclear movement in plants.http://phys.org/news/2013-09-identification-plant-specific-nanomachine-nuclear-movement.html
Cell & Microbiology Thu, 05 Sep 2013 09:10:28 ESTnews297590572Research duo use X-rays and high speed camera to learn secrets of rapid wing beats of insects (w/ Video)(Phys.org) —Two researchers from Japan's Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute have found evidence that bees share a wing muscle contraction mechanism with vertebrates by using X-rays and high speed cameras. In their paper published in the journal Science, Hiroyuki Iwamoto and Naoto Yagi describe how they constructed their observation platform and their interpretation of what they observed.http://phys.org/news/2013-08-duo-x-rays-high-camera-secrets.html
Plants & Animals Fri, 23 Aug 2013 07:44:55 ESTnews296462664Bearing witness to the phenomenon of symmetric cell divisionWriting in his journal about the scientists of his era, Henry David Thoreau bemoaned their blindness to significant phenomena: "The question is not what you look at, but what you see." More than 150 years later, his words still ring true.http://phys.org/news/2013-07-witness-phenomenon-symmetric-cell-division.html
Cell & Microbiology Thu, 18 Jul 2013 14:47:58 ESTnews293377657Physicists tease out twisted torques of DNALike an impossibly twisted telephone cord, DNA, the molecule that encodes genetic information, also often finds itself twisted into coils. This twisting, called supercoiling, is caused by enzymes that travel along DNA's helical groove and exert force and torque as they move.http://phys.org/news/2013-06-physicists-torques-dna.html
Cell & Microbiology Fri, 28 Jun 2013 10:00:01 ESTnews291630327How cells get a skeletonThe mechanism responsible for generating part of the skeletal support for the membrane in animal cells is not yet clearly understood. Now, Jean-François Joanny from the Physico Chemistry Curie Unit at the Curie Institute in Paris and colleagues have found that a well-defined layer beneath the cell outer membrane forms beyond a certain critical level of stress generated by motor proteins within the cellular system. These findings, which offer a new understanding of the formation of this so-called cortical layer, have just been published in the European Physical Journal E.http://phys.org/news/2013-06-cells-skeleton.html
Cell & Microbiology Mon, 10 Jun 2013 11:55:45 ESTnews290084138A metal switch to control motor proteins(Phys.org) —Molecular motor proteins inside the body, called kinesins, are a lot like the motor in your car. The molecular motors convert stored chemical energy into specific conformational changes, which lead to various movements in cells, analogous to the way a car engine converts the energy of gasoline combustion into torque generation, which leads to tires rotating on an axle.http://phys.org/news/2013-03-metal-motor-proteins.html
Cell & Microbiology Tue, 19 Mar 2013 07:59:07 ESTnews282898739Key protein revealed as trigger for stem cell developmentA natural trigger that enables stem cells to become any cell-type in the body has been discovered by scientists.http://phys.org/news/2013-02-key-protein-revealed-trigger-stem.html
Cell & Microbiology Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:00:22 ESTnews279458605A nano-gear in a nano-motor inside youDiverse cellular processes require many tiny force-generating motor proteins to work in a team. Paradoxically, nature often chooses the weak and inefficient dynein motor to generate large persistent forces inside cells. Here we show that a reason for this choice may be dynein's special ability to speed up or slow down depending on the load it senses.http://phys.org/news/2013-01-nano-gear-nano-motor.html
Cell & Microbiology Thu, 17 Jan 2013 12:00:07 ESTnews277643267Scientists discover structure of protein essential for quality control, nerve function(Phys.org)—Using an innovative approach, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have determined the structure of Ltn1, a recently discovered "quality-control" protein that is found in the cells of all plants, fungi and animals.http://phys.org/news/2013-01-scientists-protein-essential-quality-nerve.html
Biochemistry Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:17:37 ESTnews277406238