Cells are busy conglomerates. Different molecules and organelles have to be delivered to different locations at a specific time. How exactly they are reaching their destinations is a long-standing question in biology. Researchers from the Diez group at the B CUBE – Center for Molecular Bioengineering of TUD Dresden University of Technology and the Santen group at the Center for Biophysics at the Saarland University have now built a minimal version of a cell transport system outside a cell. Using the minimal system, the team discovered the principles of how cells control the direction of transport. The new study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
Cells are like busy factories. They need to transport molecules and organelles (cargo) reliably to different destinations within the cell. Defects in cellular transport have been associated with many diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s. The transport relies on a system of cellular train tracks known as microtubules. Two types of motor proteins, kinesin and dynein, can move in opposite directions along the microtubules to carry the cargo to its destination. At any given time, the cargo is attached to multiple copies of kinesin and dynein. Yet, it moves in only one direction. It is unclear what determines the moving direction.