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ATPγS substantially defeats the biasing mechanism for kinesin steps
Kinesin molecular motors step directionally along microtubules inside cells, hauling molecular cargoes. This is fundamental to the way cells organise themselves and is crucially important, for example. for brain function. Karnawat et al use single molecule optical trapping to show that replacing kinesin's ATP chemical fuel with ATPγS, in which just one oxygen atom of ATP is replaced with a sulphur, still allows stepping but defeats most of its directional bias. Asking why reveals the mechanism of directional stepping in unprecedented detail.
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