How do mitotic motor proteins organize spindle structures that have both stable and dynamic properties?

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15KT0155
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 特設分野
• Research Field: Constructive Systems Biology
• Research Institution: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
• Principal Investigator: Furuta Ken'ya 国立研究開発法人情報通信研究機構, 未来ICT研究所フロンティア創造総合研究室, 主任研究員 (40571831)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-07-10 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: モータータンパク質 / kinesin-5 / 微小管 / 両方向性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research, we investigated the mechanism of spindle formation and maintenance that appears during cell division as a model, filling the gap between fluctuation in the number of individual molecules and high stability/reproducibility of the entire structure. We also aimed at revealing the design principles of the each component for forming both stable and dynamic structures. On the way, we changed the research plan: we focused on bidirectional kinesin-5, which reverses the direction of movement according to the number of molecules, and studied the motility while crosslinking microtubules. As a result, we succeeded in producing multi-molecule complexes of kinesin-5 motors using DNA nanostructures as templates, which enables us to study the relationship between the directionality reversal and the number of molecules involved.

Free Research Field

生物物理学