Dynein and Kinesin

Aaron B Bowman, University of California, San Diego, California, USA
Lawrence SB Goldstein, University of California, San Diego, California, USA

Published online: April 2001

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0000677

The microtubule-based motors of the kinesin and dynein superfamilies mediate intracellular transport and cilia/flagella motility within eukaryotic cells.

Keywords: kinesin; dynein; cilia and flagella motility; organelle transport; microtubule-based motors

Figure 1. (a) Microtubule-based motors of the dynein superfamily and some members of the kinesin superfamily move towards the minus-end of microtubules; most members of the kinesin superfamily move toward the plus-end of microtubules. (b) Dynein motors exist as either two-headed or three-headed structures. Dynein complexes have three structural domains: the stalk (red), the globular heads (blue) and the stem (green). (c) Kinesin-I is a heterotetramer consisting of two identical heavy chains (red, green and blue) and two identical light chains (grey). The kinesin heavy chain has three functional domains: the motor domain (red), the -helical stalk domain (green) and the globular tail domain (blue). (d) Kinesin superfamily members all share a conserved kinesin motor domain (coloured circles) but have many different morphological structures.
Figure 2. Cross-section of flagellar axonemes. The nine outer doublet microtubules (green open circles), composed of an A-tubule and B-tubule, surround the two central microtubules (red circles). Radial spokes (blue) extend out from the central pair complex (red) towards the outer doublet complex (green). The outer doublet complex contains two classes of dynein motors attached at their base to the A-tubule. The inner arms are two-headed dynein motor complexes, while the outer arms are three-headed dynein motor complexes.
close
 References
    Bowman AB, Patel-King RS, Benashski SE et al. (1999) Drosophila roadblock and Chlamydomonas LC7: a conserved family of dynein-associated proteins involved in axonal transport, flagellar motility and mitosis. Journal of Cell Biology 146(1): 165–179.
    Brokaw CJ (1972) Flagellar movement: a sliding filament model. Science 178: 455–462.
    Dillman JF and Pfister KK (1994) Differential phosphorylation in vivo of cytoplasmic dynein associated with anterogradely moving organelles. Journal of Cell Biology 127(6): 1671–1681.
    Echard A, Jollivet F, Martinez O et al. (1998) Interaction of a Golgi-associated kinesin-like protein with Rab6. Science 279(5350): 580–585.
    Karki S, Tokito MK and Holzbaur ELF (1997) Casein kinase II binds to and phosphorylates cytoplasmic dynein. Journal of Biological Chemistry 272(9): 5587–5891.
    King SM, Barbarese E, Dillman JF et al. (1998) Cytoplasmic dynein contains a family of differentially expressed light chains. Biochemistry 37(43): 15033–15041.
    Okada Y, Sato-Yoshitake R and Hirokawa N (1995) The activation of protein kinase A pathway selectively inhibits anterograde axonal transport of vesicles but not mitochondria transport or retrograde transport in vivo. Journal of Neuroscience 15(4): 3053–3064.
    Reilein AR, Tint IS, Peunova NI, Enikolopov GN and Gelfand VI (1998) Regulation of organelle movement in melanophores by protein kinase A (PKA), protein kinase C (PKC), and protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A). Journal of Cell Biology 142(3): 803–813.
    Smith EF and Lefebvre PA (1997) The role of central apparatus components in flagellar motility and microtubule assembly. Cell Motility and the Cytoskeleton 38: 1–8.
    Tai AW, Chuang JZ, Bode C, Wolfrum U, Sung CH (1999) Rhodopsin's carboxy-terminal cytoplasmic tail acts as a membrane receptor for cytoplasmic dynein by binding to the dynein light chain Tctex-1. Cell 97: 877–887.
    Tanaka Y, Kanai Y, Okada Y et al. (1998) Targeted disruption of mouse conventional kinesin heavy chain, kif5B, results in abnormal perinuclear clustering of mitochondria. Cell 93(7): 1147–1158.
    Verhey KJ, Lizotte DL, Abramson T et al. (1998) Light chain-dependent regulation of kinesin's interaction with microtubules. Journal of Cell Biology 143(4): 1053–1066.
 Further Reading
    Dutcher SK (1995) Flagellar assembly in two hundred and fifty easy-to-follow steps. Trends in Genetics 11(10): 398–404.
    Goldstein LSB and Philp AV (1999) The road less traveled: emerging principles of kinesin motor utilization. Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology 15: (in press).
    Hirokawa N (1998) Kinesin and dynein superfamily proteins and the mechanism of organelle transport. Science 279: 519–526.
    Holleran EA, Karki S and Holzbaur ELF (1998) The role of the dynactin complex in intracellular motility. International Review of Cytology 182: 69–109.
    Milisav I (1998) Dynein and dynein-related genes. Cell Motility and the Cytoskeleton 39: 261–272.
    Mitchell DR (1994) Cell and molecular biology of flagellar dyneins. International Review of Cytology 155: 141–180.
    Rosenbaum JL, Cole DG and Diener DR (1999) Intraflagellar transport: the eyes have it. Journal of Cell Biology 144(3): 385–388.
    Thaler CD and Haimo LT (1996) Microtubules and microtubule motors: mechanisms of regulation. International Review of Cytology 164: 269–327.
    Vale RD and Fletterick RJ (1997) The design plan of kinesin motors. Annual Review of Cell Biology 13: 745–777.
    Vallee RB and Gee MA (1998) Make room for dynein. Trends in Cell Biology 8(12): 490–494.

Related Sub-Topics:

Cellular Transport | Cell Cytoskeleton | Cell Compartments and Cellular Organelles | Cell Motility | Cell Motility and Transport | Proteins: Structure, Function, Metabolism | Biochemistry of Cell Motility
Contact Editor close
Submit a note to the editor about this article by filling in the form below.

* Required Field

Article Title: Dynein and Kinesin
 
How to Cite close
Bowman, Aaron B, and Goldstein, Lawrence SB(Apr 2001) Dynein and Kinesin. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0000677]