Motor protein structure articles within Nature

Featured

  • Article |

    High-resolution cryo-electron microscopy structure of smooth muscle myosin II in the inhibited state enables increased understanding of the functions of the head and tail regions in regulation of myosin activity and the pathological mechanisms of disease mutations.

    • Shixin Yang
    • , Prince Tiwari
    •  & Roger Craig

  • Article |

    High-speed atomic force microscopy can be used to record the structure and dynamics of biomolecules simultaneously. These authors use this method to directly observe the dynamics of the motor protein myosin V moving along actin filaments, with unprecedented time resolution. The high-resolution movies provide evidence supporting the 'swinging lever-arm' model of myosin motility, and provide important insights into the mechanism of motor movement.

    • Noriyuki Kodera
    • , Daisuke Yamamoto
    •  & Toshio Ando

  • Letter |

    The bacterial flagellar motor drives the rotation of flagellar filaments, propelling bacteria through viscous media. The rotation can switch from an anticlockwise to a clockwise direction, determining a smooth or tumbling motion. A protein called FliG forms a ring in the motor's rotor, and has been proposed to adopt distinct conformations that induce switching. Here, the full-length structure of FliG is presented, and conformational changes are identified that are involved in switching between clockwise and anticlockwise rotations.

    • Lawrence K. Lee
    • , Michael A. Ginsburg
    •  & Daniela Stock

  • News & Views |

    Physics provides new approaches to difficult biological problems: a plausible mathematical model of how cilia and flagella beat has been formulated, but it needs to be subjected to rigorous experimental tests.

    • T. J. Mitchison
    •  & H. M. Mitchison

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