Multi-Motor Ensemble Movement
Multi-Motor Ensemble Movement

In cells, most cargo carried by kinesins also have dyneins attached, and thus understanding intracellular transport in cells requires both understanding how multiple kinesins coordinate their activities as well as understanding how kinesin and dynein compete to achieve directional transport.

DNA tethering

We have investigated multi-motor transport by using DNA to link defined pairs of kinesin-1 and kinesin-2 motors and see their resulting transport properties.

Mixed Motors

We are also investigating how teams of motors work together by utilizing the mixed-motor gliding assay.  Modeling work from the Tuzel Lab at WPI allows us to infer the load-dependent detachment properties of different kinesins to better understand how these multi-motor teams work.

Membrane-bound motors

Because a large fraction of cargo transported by kinesins are membrane bound vesicles and organelles, we are investigating the how attachment to a fluid lipid bilayer alters motor transport properties.  One way we are doing this is to reconstitute the microtubule gliding assay on an immobilized lipid bilayer.

Relevant Publications

Bidirectional cargo transport: moving beyond tug of war. Hancock W.O. 2014. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 15(9):615-28.  PMID: 25118718

Motor Reattachment Kinetics Play a Dominant Role in Multimotor-Driven Cargo Transport.  Feng Q, Mickolajczyk KJ, Chen GY, Hancock WO. Biophysical Journal.   2018. 114:400-409. doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2017.11.016.

Transport by Populations of Fast and Slow Kinesins Uncovers Novel Family-Dependent Motor Characteristics Important for In Vivo Function. G. Arpag, S. Shastry, W.O. Hancock and E. Tuzel. 2014. Biophysical Journal. 107(8):1896-904.  PMID: 25418170