Structural studies of kinesin motor proteins (Strukturuntersuchung von Kinesin-Motorproteinen)

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Many aspects of cellular movement are governed by microtubuledependent motors, including vesicle and organelle transport, endocytosis, flagellar beating, mitosis. There is a large and growing number of motor proteins, specialized for different tasks. In most cases their roles and modes of operation are not known. Thus far, five crystal structures of kinesin-like microtubule motors have been reported, including two from our lab (conventional kinesin motor domain from rat brain in monomeric and dimeric form). The structures have revealed some properties of kinesins but left important questions undecided, such as the stepping mechanism, the elements controlling velocity, or the origin of forward or reverse directionality. The aim of this project is to approach these issues by solving crystal structures of different types of kinesin motors, of kinesin variants mutated at functionally important residues, or of kinesins in different functional states.