Close

Resolving kinesin stepping: one head at a time

Willi L. Stepp, Zeynep Ökten

Posted on: 11 October 2019

Preprint posted on 28 May 2019

Article now published in Life Science Alliance at http://dx.doi.org/10.26508/lsa.201900456

The power of dual colour FIONA technique to track the stepping of KLP11 and KLP20 heteromeric motors

Selected by Ben Craske, Gaetan Dias Mirandela, Thibault Legal and Toni McHugh

Context:

Kinesins are essential molecular motors responsible for the transport of biological materials such as melanosomes or chromosomes on microtubules. Kinesin proteins are commonly known to walk toward the plus-end of microtubules via their two motor domains. The binding/dissociation of each of the motor domains to the microtubule is tightly mediated by ATP binding/hydrolysis. Some of the kinesin-2 molecular motors form heterotrimeric complexes composed of two different motor domains. In this case, the consistency of a “run” is questionable: whether each of the motor domains steps and resides on the microtubule in the same way or behaves differently remains to be unraveled. Additionally, another level of complexity has to be taken into account: the auto-inhibition effect mediated by the tail. The tail of kinesins is known to play an important role in the regulation of the motor activity. However, how the tail is regulating each of the motor domains’ activity remains debatable in the case of hetero-oligomeric states of certain kinesin-2 motors.

Therefore, to shed light on these questions, the authors used dual-color fluorescence imaging with one nanometer accuracy (dcFIONA) in order to track independently each of the motor domains, KLP11 and KLP20, of a heterotrimeric kinesin-2 protein from C. elegans.

Key findings:

In this work, Willi L. Steep and Zeynep Ökten used a heterodimeric processive variant of the heterotrimeric kinesin-2 from C.elegans: The variant, eeKLP11/KLP20, contains activating mutations in the stalk of the molecular motor reducing the auto-inhibition effect of the tail (Figure 1).

First, the authors demonstrated that, under limited concentration of ATP, they were able to measure, within nanometer resolution, the stepping and dwell times of two different motor domains at the same time after labelling each of them individually.  The step length of the dual-labelled Kinesin-2 remains unchanged in light of the single labelled one suggesting that the dual-tagging process does not affect the kinesin motor, thus validating the dual-labelling approach undertaken.

For the dwell-time of each motor domain, a double exponential distribution is expected when measured on a single-labelled motor. In fact, this is attesting of the ATP-waiting time for the label motor and hidden step of the second motor domain. Hence, by measuring the two motor domains simultaneously, the authors expected to observe a single exponential for each of the motor domains (assuming that the hidden step of the second motor domain will be known here). Surprisingly, the authors were able to observe a single and double exponential distribution for  KLP20 and KLP11 respectively (Figure 2).

Therefore, this result indicates for the first time that a second rate limiting step exists for eeKLP11 additionally to the ATP binding one. The authors demonstrated that this finding was consistent regardless of the tag or fluorophore employed during the study.

A hypothesis regarding the second rate-limiting step by the authors was the asymmetric auto-inhibition of the Kinesin-2 mediated by both the position of KLP11 and by the tail. The authors have previously shown that the auto-inhibition is reduced if the motor domains are swapped in relation to the tails for a KLP11-20/KLP20-11 with non-modified tails. The new technique used now allowed them to study the direct influence of the tail on the heads’ activity in the “EE” and WT version of the motor.

To assess this, the authors investigate the effect of the tail on the late dwell time for the “stalk variant” eeKLP11/20 compared to the wtKLP11/20 under saturated and excess concentration of ATP. The authors observed a decrease of 1.6 fold between the variant and WT which was corresponding to the decreased speed of the WT in ATP excess condition. Together with the previous experiment, this result provides the first evidence of an asymmetric effect of the tail of kinesin-2 on the stepping from an in vitro perspective.

Tags: fiona, heteromeric kinesin-2, molecular motors

doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/prelights.14427

Read preprint (No Ratings Yet)

Author's response

Willi L. Stepp and Dr Zeynep Ökten shared

Would it be possible to fine tune the ATP concentration to quantitatively assess the second rate limiting step described by this approach?

Unfortunately, with this experimental setup, the range of ATP concentrations that allows us to measure dcFIONA data is rather limited. A lower ATP concentration sets high demands on the stability of the setup (the microscope, but also the microtubules etc). A higher ATP concentration would demand for faster imaging which is challenging when imaging with single dyes. Qdots are no option here, as all that we tested bind unspecifically to our kinesin-2s.

We instead measured the stepping of a head-swapped KLP11-20/20-11 and show, that both speed and KLP11 dwell time are inbetween the wtKLP and eeKLP. Thus confirming, that this second rate is indeed linked to the auto-inhibition of the motor.

Are dwell times of each of the motor domains of a homodimeric kinesin distributed as a single exponential population?

There has been one study on a double labelled homodimeric myosin-V before. Unfortunately, there seems to be no information on the dwell-times of this motor. Maybe the authors could comment on this question.

Warshaw DM, Kennedy GG, Work SS, Krementsova EB, Beck S, Trybus KM (2005) Differential labeling of myosin V heads with quantum dots allows direct visualization of hand-over-hand processivity. Biophys J 88: L30–L32.

Is this second rate limiting reaction a conserved mechanism across kinesin-2 protein family?

Kinesin-2 is a motor that was very specifically evolved for the function in cilia. Also, there are very few other motors that show heteromeric activity. While we do not have any information on the function of this second rate-limiting step in the KLP11 stepping cycle, we think that it might be linked to one of the specific mechanisms for IFT. This would suggest a high probability for the mechanism to be also present in other kinesin-2 motors.

Have your say

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Sign up to customise the site to your preferences and to receive alerts

Register here

Also in the biochemistry category:

Triglyceride metabolism controls inflammation and APOE4-associated disease states in microglia

Roxan A. Stephenson, Kory R. Johnson, Linling Cheng, et al.

Selected by 22 August 2024

Gustavo Stelzer, Marcus Oliveira

Biochemistry

Impaired 26S proteasome causes learning and memory deficiency and induces neuroinflammation mediated by NF-κB in mice

Christa C. Huber, Eduardo Callegari, Maria Paez, et al.

Selected by 22 August 2024

Gustavo Stelzer, Marcus Oliveira

Biochemistry

Notch3 is a genetic modifier of NODAL signalling for patterning asymmetry during mouse heart looping

Tobias Holm Bønnelykke, Marie-Amandine Chabry, Emeline Perthame, et al.

Selected by 06 June 2024

Bhaval Parmar

Developmental Biology

Also in the cell biology category:

Restoring mechanophenotype reverts malignant properties of ECM-enriched vocal fold cancer

Jasmin Kaivola, Karolina Punovuori, Megan R. Chastney, et al.

Selected by 19 December 2024

Teodora Piskova

Cancer Biology

Germplasm stability in zebrafish requires maternal Tdrd6a and Tdrd6c

Alessandro Consorte, Yasmin El Sherif, Fridolin Kielisch, et al.

Selected by 13 December 2024

Justin Gutkowski

Developmental Biology

Leukocytes use endothelial membrane tunnels to extravasate the vasculature

Werner J. van der Meer, Abraham C.I. van Steen, Eike Mahlandt, et al.

Selected by 08 December 2024

Felipe Del Valle Batalla

Cell Biology

Also in the molecular biology category:

Germplasm stability in zebrafish requires maternal Tdrd6a and Tdrd6c

Alessandro Consorte, Yasmin El Sherif, Fridolin Kielisch, et al.

Selected by 13 December 2024

Justin Gutkowski

Developmental Biology

Platelet-derived LPA16:0 inhibits adult neurogenesis and stress resilience in anxiety disorder

Thomas Larrieu, Charline Carron, Fabio Grieco, et al.

Selected by 04 December 2024

Harvey Roweth

Neuroscience

Green synthesized silver nanoparticles from Moringa: Potential for preventative treatment of SARS-CoV-2 contaminated water

Adebayo J. Bello, Omorilewa B. Ebunoluwa, Rukayat O. Ayorinde, et al.

Selected by 14 November 2024

Safieh Shah, Benjamin Dominik Maier

Epidemiology

preLists in the biochemistry category:

BSCB-Biochemical Society 2024 Cell Migration meeting

This preList features preprints that were discussed and presented during the BSCB-Biochemical Society 2024 Cell Migration meeting in Birmingham, UK in April 2024. Kindly put together by Sara Morais da Silva, Reviews Editor at Journal of Cell Science.

 



List by Reinier Prosee

Peer Review in Biomedical Sciences

Communication of scientific knowledge has changed dramatically in recent decades and the public perception of scientific discoveries depends on the peer review process of articles published in scientific journals. Preprints are key vehicles for the dissemination of scientific discoveries, but they are still not properly recognized by the scientific community since peer review is very limited. On the other hand, peer review is very heterogeneous and a fundamental aspect to improve it is to train young scientists on how to think critically and how to evaluate scientific knowledge in a professional way. Thus, this course aims to: i) train students on how to perform peer review of scientific manuscripts in a professional manner; ii) develop students' critical thinking; iii) contribute to the appreciation of preprints as important vehicles for the dissemination of scientific knowledge without restrictions; iv) contribute to the development of students' curricula, as their opinions will be published and indexed on the preLights platform. The evaluations will be based on qualitative analyses of the oral presentations of preprints in the field of biomedical sciences deposited in the bioRxiv server, of the critical reports written by the students, as well as of the participation of the students during the preprints discussions.

 



List by Marcus Oliveira et al.

CellBio 2022 – An ASCB/EMBO Meeting

This preLists features preprints that were discussed and presented during the CellBio 2022 meeting in Washington, DC in December 2022.

 



List by Nadja Hümpfer et al.

20th “Genetics Workshops in Hungary”, Szeged (25th, September)

In this annual conference, Hungarian geneticists, biochemists and biotechnologists presented their works. Link: http://group.szbk.u-szeged.hu/minikonf/archive/prg2021.pdf

 



List by Nándor Lipták

Fibroblasts

The advances in fibroblast biology preList explores the recent discoveries and preprints of the fibroblast world. Get ready to immerse yourself with this list created for fibroblasts aficionados and lovers, and beyond. Here, my goal is to include preprints of fibroblast biology, heterogeneity, fate, extracellular matrix, behavior, topography, single-cell atlases, spatial transcriptomics, and their matrix!

 



List by Osvaldo Contreras

ASCB EMBO Annual Meeting 2019

A collection of preprints presented at the 2019 ASCB EMBO Meeting in Washington, DC (December 7-11)

 



List by Madhuja Samaddar et al.

EMBL Seeing is Believing – Imaging the Molecular Processes of Life

Preprints discussed at the 2019 edition of Seeing is Believing, at EMBL Heidelberg from the 9th-12th October 2019

 



List by Dey Lab

Cellular metabolism

A curated list of preprints related to cellular metabolism at Biorxiv by Pablo Ranea Robles from the Prelights community. Special interest on lipid metabolism, peroxisomes and mitochondria.

 



List by Pablo Ranea Robles

MitoList

This list of preprints is focused on work expanding our knowledge on mitochondria in any organism, tissue or cell type, from the normal biology to the pathology.

 



List by Sandra Franco Iborra

Also in the cell biology category:

November in preprints – the CellBio edition

This is the first community-driven preList! A group of preLighters, with expertise in different areas of cell biology, have worked together to create this preprint reading lists for researchers with an interest in cell biology. Categories include: 1) cancer cell biology 2) cell cycle and division 3) cell migration and cytoskeleton 4) cell organelles and organisation 5) cell signalling and mechanosensing 6) genetics/gene expression

 



List by Felipe Del Valle Batalla et al.

BSCB-Biochemical Society 2024 Cell Migration meeting

This preList features preprints that were discussed and presented during the BSCB-Biochemical Society 2024 Cell Migration meeting in Birmingham, UK in April 2024. Kindly put together by Sara Morais da Silva, Reviews Editor at Journal of Cell Science.

 



List by Reinier Prosee

‘In preprints’ from Development 2022-2023

A list of the preprints featured in Development's 'In preprints' articles between 2022-2023

 



List by Alex Eve, Katherine Brown

preLights peer support – preprints of interest

This is a preprint repository to organise the preprints and preLights covered through the 'preLights peer support' initiative.

 



List by preLights peer support

The Society for Developmental Biology 82nd Annual Meeting

This preList is made up of the preprints discussed during the Society for Developmental Biology 82nd Annual Meeting that took place in Chicago in July 2023.

 



List by Joyce Yu, Katherine Brown

CSHL 87th Symposium: Stem Cells

Preprints mentioned by speakers at the #CSHLsymp23

 



List by Alex Eve

Journal of Cell Science meeting ‘Imaging Cell Dynamics’

This preList highlights the preprints discussed at the JCS meeting 'Imaging Cell Dynamics'. The meeting was held from 14 - 17 May 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal and was organised by Erika Holzbaur, Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, Rob Parton and Michael Way.

 



List by Helen Zenner

9th International Symposium on the Biology of Vertebrate Sex Determination

This preList contains preprints discussed during the 9th International Symposium on the Biology of Vertebrate Sex Determination. This conference was held in Kona, Hawaii from April 17th to 21st 2023.

 



List by Martin Estermann

Alumni picks – preLights 5th Birthday

This preList contains preprints that were picked and highlighted by preLights Alumni - an initiative that was set up to mark preLights 5th birthday. More entries will follow throughout February and March 2023.

 



List by Sergio Menchero et al.

CellBio 2022 – An ASCB/EMBO Meeting

This preLists features preprints that were discussed and presented during the CellBio 2022 meeting in Washington, DC in December 2022.

 



List by Nadja Hümpfer et al.

Fibroblasts

The advances in fibroblast biology preList explores the recent discoveries and preprints of the fibroblast world. Get ready to immerse yourself with this list created for fibroblasts aficionados and lovers, and beyond. Here, my goal is to include preprints of fibroblast biology, heterogeneity, fate, extracellular matrix, behavior, topography, single-cell atlases, spatial transcriptomics, and their matrix!

 



List by Osvaldo Contreras

EMBL Synthetic Morphogenesis: From Gene Circuits to Tissue Architecture (2021)

A list of preprints mentioned at the #EESmorphoG virtual meeting in 2021.

 



List by Alex Eve

FENS 2020

A collection of preprints presented during the virtual meeting of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) in 2020

 



List by Ana Dorrego-Rivas

Planar Cell Polarity – PCP

This preList contains preprints about the latest findings on Planar Cell Polarity (PCP) in various model organisms at the molecular, cellular and tissue levels.

 



List by Ana Dorrego-Rivas

BioMalPar XVI: Biology and Pathology of the Malaria Parasite

[under construction] Preprints presented at the (fully virtual) EMBL BioMalPar XVI, 17-18 May 2020 #emblmalaria

 



List by Dey Lab, Samantha Seah

1

Cell Polarity

Recent research from the field of cell polarity is summarized in this list of preprints. It comprises of studies focusing on various forms of cell polarity ranging from epithelial polarity, planar cell polarity to front-to-rear polarity.

 



List by Yamini Ravichandran

TAGC 2020

Preprints recently presented at the virtual Allied Genetics Conference, April 22-26, 2020. #TAGC20

 



List by Maiko Kitaoka et al.

3D Gastruloids

A curated list of preprints related to Gastruloids (in vitro models of early development obtained by 3D aggregation of embryonic cells). Updated until July 2021.

 



List by Paul Gerald L. Sanchez and Stefano Vianello

ECFG15 – Fungal biology

Preprints presented at 15th European Conference on Fungal Genetics 17-20 February 2020 Rome

 



List by Hiral Shah

ASCB EMBO Annual Meeting 2019

A collection of preprints presented at the 2019 ASCB EMBO Meeting in Washington, DC (December 7-11)

 



List by Madhuja Samaddar et al.

EMBL Seeing is Believing – Imaging the Molecular Processes of Life

Preprints discussed at the 2019 edition of Seeing is Believing, at EMBL Heidelberg from the 9th-12th October 2019

 



List by Dey Lab

Autophagy

Preprints on autophagy and lysosomal degradation and its role in neurodegeneration and disease. Includes molecular mechanisms, upstream signalling and regulation as well as studies on pharmaceutical interventions to upregulate the process.

 



List by Sandra Malmgren Hill

Lung Disease and Regeneration

This preprint list compiles highlights from the field of lung biology.

 



List by Rob Hynds

Cellular metabolism

A curated list of preprints related to cellular metabolism at Biorxiv by Pablo Ranea Robles from the Prelights community. Special interest on lipid metabolism, peroxisomes and mitochondria.

 



List by Pablo Ranea Robles

BSCB/BSDB Annual Meeting 2019

Preprints presented at the BSCB/BSDB Annual Meeting 2019

 



List by Dey Lab

Biophysical Society Annual Meeting 2019

Few of the preprints that were discussed in the recent BPS annual meeting at Baltimore, USA

 



List by Joseph Jose Thottacherry

ASCB/EMBO Annual Meeting 2018

This list relates to preprints that were discussed at the recent ASCB conference.

 



List by Dey Lab, Amanda Haage

Also in the molecular biology category:

2024 Hypothalamus GRC

This 2024 Hypothalamus GRC (Gordon Research Conference) preList offers an overview of cutting-edge research focused on the hypothalamus, a critical brain region involved in regulating homeostasis, behavior, and neuroendocrine functions. The studies included cover a range of topics, including neural circuits, molecular mechanisms, and the role of the hypothalamus in health and disease. This collection highlights some of the latest advances in understanding hypothalamic function, with potential implications for treating disorders such as obesity, stress, and metabolic diseases.

 



List by Nathalie Krauth

BSCB-Biochemical Society 2024 Cell Migration meeting

This preList features preprints that were discussed and presented during the BSCB-Biochemical Society 2024 Cell Migration meeting in Birmingham, UK in April 2024. Kindly put together by Sara Morais da Silva, Reviews Editor at Journal of Cell Science.

 



List by Reinier Prosee

‘In preprints’ from Development 2022-2023

A list of the preprints featured in Development's 'In preprints' articles between 2022-2023

 



List by Alex Eve, Katherine Brown

CSHL 87th Symposium: Stem Cells

Preprints mentioned by speakers at the #CSHLsymp23

 



List by Alex Eve

9th International Symposium on the Biology of Vertebrate Sex Determination

This preList contains preprints discussed during the 9th International Symposium on the Biology of Vertebrate Sex Determination. This conference was held in Kona, Hawaii from April 17th to 21st 2023.

 



List by Martin Estermann

Alumni picks – preLights 5th Birthday

This preList contains preprints that were picked and highlighted by preLights Alumni - an initiative that was set up to mark preLights 5th birthday. More entries will follow throughout February and March 2023.

 



List by Sergio Menchero et al.

CellBio 2022 – An ASCB/EMBO Meeting

This preLists features preprints that were discussed and presented during the CellBio 2022 meeting in Washington, DC in December 2022.

 



List by Nadja Hümpfer et al.

EMBL Synthetic Morphogenesis: From Gene Circuits to Tissue Architecture (2021)

A list of preprints mentioned at the #EESmorphoG virtual meeting in 2021.

 



List by Alex Eve

FENS 2020

A collection of preprints presented during the virtual meeting of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) in 2020

 



List by Ana Dorrego-Rivas

ECFG15 – Fungal biology

Preprints presented at 15th European Conference on Fungal Genetics 17-20 February 2020 Rome

 



List by Hiral Shah

ASCB EMBO Annual Meeting 2019

A collection of preprints presented at the 2019 ASCB EMBO Meeting in Washington, DC (December 7-11)

 



List by Madhuja Samaddar et al.

Lung Disease and Regeneration

This preprint list compiles highlights from the field of lung biology.

 



List by Rob Hynds

MitoList

This list of preprints is focused on work expanding our knowledge on mitochondria in any organism, tissue or cell type, from the normal biology to the pathology.

 



List by Sandra Franco Iborra
Close