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Query: EC:3.6.4.4 (kinesin)
 5,033 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Intracellular microtubule motor proteins may direct the motile properties and/or morphogenesis of the mitotic spindle (reviewed in ref. 3). The recent identification of kinesin-like proteins important for mitosis or meiosis indicates that kinesin-related proteins may play a universal role in eukaryotic cell division, but the precise function of such proteins in mitosis remains unknown. Here we use an in vitro assay for spindle assembly, derived from Xenopus egg extracts, to investigate the role of Eg5, a kinesin-like protein in Xenopus eggs. Eg5 is localized along spindle microtubules, and particularly enriched near spindle poles. Immunodepletion of Eg5 from egg extracts markedly reduces the extent of spindle formation in extracts, as does direct addition of anti-Eg5 antibodies. We also demonstrate that Eg5 is a plus-end-directed microtubule motor in vitro. Our results suggest a novel mechanism for the dynamic self-organization of spindle poles in mitosis.
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PMID:Mitotic spindle organization by a plus-end-directed microtubule motor. 140 65

Eg5, a member of the bimC subfamily of kinesin-like microtubule motor proteins, localizes to spindle microtubules in mitosis but not to interphase microtubules. We investigated the molecular basis for spindle localization by transient transfection of Xenopus A6 cells with myc-tagged derivatives of Eg5. Expressed at constitutively high levels from a cytomegalovirus promoter, mycEg5 protein is cytoplasmic throughout interphase, begins to bind microtubules in early prophase, and remains localized to spindle and/or midbody microtubules through mitosis to the end of telophase. Both N- and C-terminal regions of Eg5 are required for this cell-cycle-regulated targeting. Eg5 also contains within its C-terminal domain a sequence conserved among bimC subfamily proteins that includes a potential p34cdc2 phosphorylation site. We show that mutation of a single threonine (T937) within this site to nonphosphorylatable alanine abolishes localization of the mutant protein to the spindle, whereas mutation of T937 to serine preserves spindle localization. We hypothesize that phosphorylation of Eg5 may regulate its localization to the spindle in the cell cycle.
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PMID:Mutations in the kinesin-like protein Eg5 disrupting localization to the mitotic spindle. 775 99

We investigated the mechanism of poleward microtubule flux in the mitotic spindle by generating spindle subassemblies in Xenopus egg extracts in vitro and assaying their ability to flux by photoactivation of fluorescence and low-light multichannel fluorescence video-microscopy. We find that monopolar intermediates of in vitro spindle assembly (half-spindles) exhibit normal poleward flux, as do astral microtubule arrays induced by the addition of dimethyl sulfoxide to egg extracts in the absence of both chromosomes and conventional centrosomes. Immunodepletion of the kinesin-related microtubule motor protein Eg5, a candidate flux motor, suggests that Eg5 is not required for flux. These results suggest that poleward flux is a basic element of microtubule behavior exhibited by even simple self-organized microtubule arrays and presumably underlies the most elementary levels of spindle morphogenesis.
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PMID:Microtubule flux in mitosis is independent of chromosomes, centrosomes, and antiparallel microtubules. 801 7

Pan-kinesin peptide antibodies (Cole, D. G., Cande, W. Z., Baskin, R. J., Skoufias, D. A., Hogan, C. J., and Scholey, J. M. (1992) J. Cell Sci. 101, 291-301; Sawin, K. E., Mitchinson, T. J., and Wordeman, L. G. (1992) J. Cell Sci. 101, 303-313) were used to identify and isolate kinesin-related proteins (KRPs) from Drosophila melanogaster embryonic cytosol. These KRPs cosedimented with microtubules (MTs) polymerized from cytosol treated with AMP-PNP (adenyl-5'-yl imidodiphosphate), and one of them, KRP130, was further purified from ATP eluates of the embryonic MTs. Purified KRP130 behaves as a homotetrameric complex composed of four 130-kDa polypeptide subunits which displays a "slow" plus-end directed motor activity capable of moving single MTs at 0.04 +/- 0.01 microns/s. The 130-kDa subunit of KRP130 was tested for reactivity with monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies that are specific for various members of the kinesin superfamily. Results indicate that the KRP130 subunit is related to Xenopus Eg5 (Sawin, K. E., Le Guellec, K. L., Philippe, M., Mitchinson, T. J. (1992) Nature 359, 540-543), a member of the BimC subfamily of kinesins. Therefore, KRP130 appears to be the first Drosophila KRP, and the first member of the BimC subfamily in any organism, to be purified from native tissue as a multimeric motor complex.
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PMID:A "slow" homotetrameric kinesin-related motor protein purified from Drosophila embryos. 808 85

We report here that disruption of a recently discovered kinesin-like protein in Drosophila melanogaster, KLP61F, results in a mitotic mutation lethal to the organism. We show that in the absence of KLP61F function, spindle poles fail to separate, resulting in the formation of monopolar mitotic spindles. The resulting phenotype of metaphase arrest with polyploid cells is reminiscent of that seen in the fungal bimC and cut7 mutations, where it has also been shown that spindle pole bodies are not segregated. KLP61F is specifically expressed in proliferating tissues during embryonic and larval development, consistent with a primary role in cell division. The structural and functional homology of the KLP61F, bimC, cut7, and Eg5 kinesin-like proteins demonstrates the existence of a conserved family of kinesin-like molecules important for spindle pole separation and mitotic spindle dynamics.
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PMID:The kinesin-like protein KLP61F is essential for mitosis in Drosophila. 822 31

Recent evidence shows that kinesin-like proteins (Klps) form a very large multigene family. A recent study using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) identified six new candidate Klps in Drosophila, making the total number of members of this family in Drosophila at least 11 (Stewart et al., 1991, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88, 4424-4427). The functional basis of this diversity is not clear. Different Klps could have cell type-specific functions, or they could perform different functions within the same cell type, or a mixture of both. To investigate the degree to which different Klps are expressed in the same cell, we chose the Xenopus oocyte. During oocyte differentiation, and in the egg, different types of microtubule-based motility occur; all are important to the normal development of the embryo after fertilization. Using PCR we identified and partially sequenced four novel Klp mRNAs from the Xenopus oocyte (denoted XKlps 1-4). Multialign sequence comparison suggests that one of them, XKlp3, may be the Xenopus counterpart of Drosophila Klp4. Similarly Xenopus Eg5 is closely related to Drosophila Klp2. Northern blot analysis reveals that the Xenopus XKlps have different patterns of expression during embryogenesis. These data show that at least four Klps can exist in the same cell and that they can be differentially regulated during early development, and suggest their differential function in oogenesis and early development.
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PMID:Multiple kinesin-like transcripts in Xenopus oocytes. 848 13

We have investigated the kinetic properties of the slow plus end directed microtubule (MT) motor Eg5. The recombinantly expressed fusion protein E437GST, containing residues 12-437 of Eg5 fused to the N-terminus of glutathione S-transferase (GST), is dimeric and motile, translocating MTs at an average speed of 0.063 (+/-0.01) micrometers(-1). The kinetics of ATP turnover by E437GST were investigated using the fluorescent ATP analogue methylanthraniloyl-ATP (mantATP). In the absence of MTs, mantADP release from E437GST is slow (0.006 s(-1) in 50 mM NaCl) and rate-limiting. MTs accelerate this kinetic step approximately 850-fold to a maximal rate of 4.94 s(-1). Under these conditions, the steady-state rate of mantATP turnover was 1.92 s(-1), indicating that MT-activated mantADP release accounts for at least 40% of the total cycle time of the motor and is probably rate-limiting. This step is around 10-fold slower in Eg5 than in kinesin, consistent with it limiting the rate of physical stepping in both Eg5 and kinesin. The dissociation constants of the motor in the presence of various nucleotides were determined using MT pelleting assays. ADP stabilizes the weakest bound state of the motor, while ATP, ATP gamma S, AMPPNP, and apyrase all induce a shift toward tighter binding states. Overall, the data indicate that Eg5 displays strong kinetic homologies with the two other well-characterized MT motors, kinesin and non claret disjunctional, suggesting that all kinesin superfamily motors may share the same basic mechanochemistry.
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PMID:Kinetics and motility of the Eg5 microtubule motor. 865 78

We have developed a new method for immunogold detection on deep-etch replicas of isolated Xenopus egg cortices in order to examine the interactions of different cortical elements in three dimensions at high resolution. We have applied this technique to vegetal cortices isolated during the second half of the first cell cycle. The vegetal cortical region at this time is the site of cellular machinery responsible for the 'cortical rotation'. The entire cortex translocates with respect to the inner cytoplasm, relocating dorsalising determinants to the future dorsal side of the egg. The aligned microtubules in the shear zone between cytoplasm and cortex, implicated in the cortical rotation, were found to be organised as interweaving loose bundles. Interleaved amongst these aligned microtubules were extensive sheets of ER lying in layers parallel to the egg surface. Cytokeratin filaments were found to associate closely with the microtubules over short stretches. Putative actin filaments were present in the shear zone and in the cortex. Eg5, an abundant kinesin-related microtubule motor protein, and candidate for a role in generating cortical rotation movement, showed an almost exclusive localisation to microtubules. Immunofluorescence studies of cortices treated with detergent to disrupt ER or cold to depolymerise microtubules confirmed that Eg5 associates primarily with microtubules. We propose revised models for the mechanism of cortical rotation based on these observations and conclude that Eg5 is unlikely to move ER relative to microtubules during the cortical rotation.
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PMID:Immunodetection of cytoskeletal structures and the Eg5 motor protein on deep-etch replicas of Xenopus egg cortices isolated during the cortical rotation. 923 65

The kinesin molecular motor "walks" processively along microtubules, touching down with alternate motor domains and transiently bridging between sites spaced 8 nm apart axially. To allow bridging, the coiled coil tail of kinesin would need to unzip a region immediately adjacent to the heads, and the tail region sequence at this point indeed contains potentially destabilising interruptions in the regular hydrophobic heptad repeat. We noticed that such interruptions are substantially absent from the coiled coil tails of Eg5, a slow kinesin homologue, and ncd, a reverse-directed homologue, and we wondered if this precluded their processivity. We measured the temperature dependence of kcat/K50% MTs, an index of the chemical processivity of a motor, the number of ATPs split per productive diffusional encounter of motor with microtubule. We found two-headed ncd (GSTMC5) and two-headed Eg5 (E437GST) constructs to be slightly if at all processive in solution over the range 4 degrees C to 30 degrees C. By contrast, two-headed kinesin constructs K401 and K430 were processive, and became substantially more so with increasing temperature. Arrhenius plots for the solution ATPase were linear for all three motors. Arrhenius plots for MT gliding assays were linear and essentially parallel for E437GST and GSTMC5 (Ea = 61 and 63 kJ mol-1) but for K430 the plot was biphasic, with a break at 17 degrees C, corresponding to a 30% reduction in Ea from 84 to 57 kJ mol-1. The data indicate that ncd and Eg5 are only slightly if at all processive, and suggest that this may be related to structural differences in their coiled coil neck regions.
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PMID:Kinetic evidence for low chemical processivity in ncd and Eg5. 936 54

Members of the bimC family of kinesin related proteins (KRPs) play vital roles in the formation and function of the mitotic spindle. Although they share little amino acid homology outside the highly conserved microtubule motor domain, several family members do contain a 'bimC box', a sequence motif around a p34(cdc2) consensus phosphorylation site in their carboxy-terminal 'tail' region. One family member, Eg5, requires phosphorylation at this site for association with the mitotic spindle. We show that mutations in the Schizosaccharomyces pombe cut7+ gene that change the bimC box p34(cdc2) consensus phosphorylation site at position 1,011 and a neighbouring MAP kinase consensus phosphorylation site at position 1,020 to non-phosphorylatable residues did not affect the ability of S. pombe cut7 genes to complement temperature sensitive cut7 mutants. Phosphorylation site mutants expressed as fusions to green fluorescent protein associated with the mitotic spindle with a localisation indistinguishable from similarly expressed wild-type Cut7. Cells in which cut7.T1011A replaced the genomic copy of cut7+ were viable and formed normal spindles. Deletion of the entire carboxy-terminal tail region did not affect the ability of Cut7 to associate with the mitotic spindle but did inhibit normal spindle formation. Thus, unlike Eg5, neither the p34(cdc2) consensus phosphorylation site in the bimC box nor the entire tail region of Cut7 are required for association with the mitotic spindle.
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PMID:Mutations in the bimC box of Cut7 indicate divergence of regulation within the bimC family of kinesin related proteins. 949 Jun 30


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