Researchers from Bengaluru and Dresden have discovered a unique two-component molecular motor that uses a kind of renewable chemical energy to pull vesicles toward membrane-bound organelles.
Researchers have discovered a novel molecular system that uses alternative chemical energy and employs a novel mechanism to perform mechanical work.
The researchers, whose work has been published in the journal Nature Physics, are from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, the Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life and the Biotechnology Center of the Technische Universität Dresden in Dresden, Germany.
Motor proteins are remarkable molecular machines within a cell that converts chemical energy stored in a molecule called ATP, into mechanical work. The most prominent example is myosin which helps our muscles to move.
In contrast, GTPases, which are small proteins, have not been viewed as molecular force generators. One example is a molecular motor composed of two proteins, EEA1 and Rab5, said NCBS.
“Our results show that the proteins EEA1 and Rab5 work together as a two-component molecular motor system that can transfer chemical energy into mechanical work. As a result, they can play active mechanical roles in membrane trafficking. It is possible that the force-generating molecular motor mechanism maybe conserved across other molecules and used by several other cellular compartments,” said Marino Zerial of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics.
Overall, the researchers hope that this new interdisciplinary study could open new research avenues in both molecular cell biology and biophysics.
