The motor protein myosin-V, which hauls molecular cargoes around cells by ratcheting along filaments of actin, switches between two different molecular mechanisms of movement depending on the environment. This finding by ...

The interior of an animal cell is like a small city, with factories—called organelles—dedicated to manufacturing, energy production, waste processing, and other life functions. A network of intercellular "highways," called ...

(Phys.org)—Physics researchers working at Brandeis University have created a gel that is capable of spontaneous movement. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the team describes how they created gel drops by ...

In a critical breakthrough in unraveling how molecular "motors" ferry proteins and nutrients through cells, Harvard scientists have produced high-resolution images that show how the "foot" of dynein—one of the most complex, ...

Cells can show a remarkable range of motility, creeping over substrates using a variety of pushes, pulls, stretches, and drags to get from A to B. This range of motion is achieved through the concerted efforts of motor proteins ...

(Phys.org)—A new model system of the cellular skeletons of living cells is akin to a mini-laboratory designed to explore how the cells' functional structures assemble. A paper about to be published in European Physical ...

University of Sheffield scientists have decoded the processes which create proteins in all forms of life which - for the first time - opens the door to fixing these problems which can cause fatal health problems like Motor ...

Every second, around 25 million cell divisions take place in our bodies. This process is driven by microtubule filaments which continually grow and shrink. A new study shows how so-called motor proteins in the cytosol can ...

Ulrich Technau from the University of Vienna has addressed the origin of musculature. His analysis reveals for the first time that some central components of muscles of higher animals are much older than previously assumed. ...

Motor protein

Motor proteins are a class of molecular motors that are able to move along the surface of a suitable substrate. They are powered by the hydrolysis of ATP and convert chemical energy into mechanical work.