MOTOR PROTEINS

The study of motor proteins has become a major focus in cell and molecular biology. Motor
proteins are very interesting because they do what no man-made engines do: they directly
convert the chemical energy into mechanical energy without using any electrical energy or heat
as an intermediate. Motor proteins are enzymes that convert chemical energy into motion.
Chemical energy is obtained from the hydrolysis of ATP and the motion is generated by the
conformational changes depending on the bound nucleotide such as myosin, kinesin and
dynein. Motor proteins play an important role in muscle contraction, cell migration,
chromosome segregation, morphogenesis, beating of sperms and cilia, transport of intracellular
cargoes etc. They have also tremendous applications in nanotechnology. In the present lecture
we have mainly focused on the actin based motor protein i.e. myosin.
Common properties of motor proteins:
 They move along the filaments.
 They can bind to specific filament types.
 They hydrolyze ATP.

Types of Motor proteins:

Generally there are two types of motor proteins-
1. Actin based motor protein: Myosin is an actin based motor protein. It moves along the
actin filaments.
2. Tubulin based motor protein: Tubulin is the building block of microtubules. Kinesin and
dynein are tubulin based motor proteins. They move along the microtubule. Kinesin motor
moves towards plus (+) end of microtubule (away from centrosome) whereas dynein moves
towards minus (-) end of the microtubules (towards centrosome).
There are another type of motor proteins called Nucleic acid based motor proteins. They
move along a DNA and produce force. DNA and RNA polymerases are nucleic acid based
motor proteins.
Classification of motor proteins
Motor proteins usually become active enzymes after binding to some static or dynamic cellular
structures such as cytoskeleton protein filaments, cellular membranes, nucleic acids or other
protein complexes. This observation allows us to divide motors into several groups.
(1) Cytoskeleton filaments motor proteins, such as dyneins, kinesins and myosins, start to work
by associating with and moving along the cytoskeleton filaments (actin filaments and
microtubules). These motor proteins utilize the energy of hydrolysis of ATP (adenosine
triphosphate) or related compounds, and they are the main players in cellular transport
processes. Cytoskeletonbound motor proteins are the most studied systems from the dynamic
and structural points of view, and our current understanding of the mechanisms of energy
transduction in molecular motors comes mainly from experiments on kinesin and myosin motor
proteins
(2) Nucleic acids motor proteins, such as polymerases, topoisomerases, gyrases, helicases and
many others, usually function by associating with DNA and RNA molecules, and the source
of chemical energy for these motors is the polymerization reactions of nucleic acids, synthesis
of proteins and/or ATP hydrolysis. These motor proteins are important for the maintenance and
processing of genetic information, as well as for the synthesis of all protein molecules in cells.
These enzymes are currently at the center of intense experimental investigations; however, the
available information on how they work is still quite limited, especially in comparison with
cytoskeleton motor proteins, most probably due to the very high complexity of biological
systems.
(3) Rotary motor proteins, such as bacterial flagella (essential for bacterial migration) and
F0F1-ATP synthase (which is used to synthesize ATP molecules, the main source of energy in
biological systems, in mitochondria), are usually bound to cellular membranes. They are
involved in circular motions in the membrane or outside of the cell; although, to be more exact,
only parts of the molecule outside of the membrane usually move. Some of rotary motors utilize
the electrochemical energy of various ion gradients that exist across cellular membranes. These
molecular motors are very important for cell motility and chemotaxis (i.e., for the cellular
motion in the direction of available nutrients), but the mechanisms of these rotary motor
proteins are understood much less in comparison with linear motor proteins.
Kolomeisky, Anatoly. 2013. Motor Proteins and Molecular Motors: How to Operate Machines
at the Nanoscale. Department of Chemistry, Rice University Center for Theoretical Biological
Physics, Rice University, Houston : USA. JOURNAL OF PHYSICS: CONDENSED
MATTER