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New study explores co-operation between motor proteins dynein and KIF1C

A groundbreaking study sheds light on the collaboration between dynein and KIF1C, two essential motor proteins responsible for transporting cellular cargo in opposite directions. Dynein, which moves towards the cell body, is linked to conditions like Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2 and Spinal Muscular Atrophy, while KIF1C, which carries cargo towards the cell periphery, is associated with hereditary spastic paraplegia and spastic ataxia.

The study addresses the long-standing problem of why motors of opposite polarity depend on each other in cells but undertake an unproductive tug-of-war if coupled directly together. The research teams discovered that KIF1C primes the FHF cargo adapter to activate dynein and extends dynein movement. Thus, KIF1C works as a “helper” motor, facilitating dynein’s recruitment to cargo and enabling it to carry out its function more efficiently. This cooperation of KIF1C and dynein ensures that cargo reaches its intended destination within the cell, which is crucial for neuronal function and survival.

This research was led by Professor Anne Straube and Dr. Andrew Carter in a collaboration between Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge. The study’s key contributors include Alex Zwetsloot, a PhD student in Straube’s group, and Dr. Ferdos Abid Ali, a postdoctoral researcher at LMB.

Professor Straube commented: "This study not only resolves a long-standing paradox but also paves the way to understanding how we can balance out problems arising from mutations in the transport machinery that cause neurological diseases”.

Generously funded by multiple Wellcome Trust awards and MRC support, this work offers new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying these motor proteins’ roles in health and disease.

You can read the full publication here in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology to learn more about this important advancement in cellular biology.

For further information please contact wms.comms@warwick.ac.uk

Wed 08 Jan 2025, 14:04 | Tags: BMS news