BIOL 331 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Kinesin, Immunoglobulin Light Chain, Cytoskeleton
1 Mar 2018
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Document Summary
Serves as a scaffold to provide structural support and maintain cell shape. Serves as an internal framework to position organelles. Provides a network of tracks that direct the movement of materials and organelles. Makes up an essential part of the cell division machinery. Microtubules are stiff and hollow tubes made up of 13 parallel, long polymers known as protofilaments. Each protofilament is constructed from a heterodimeric building block, which is bonded non covalently, and is made up of one alpha- and one beta-tubulin. The dimer stays together once its formed. The alpha-tubulin constitutes the negative end, whereas the beta-tubulin makes up the positive end. Is a tetramer, meaning that it has 2 heavy chains and 2 light chains. The head of a kinesin molecule is an atpase motor which attaches to microtubules. The tail of a kinesin molecule attached to a vesicle or organelle via an adaptor protein. Moves from the negative to positive end of microtubule.
