Traffic control: adaptor proteins guide dynein-cargo takeoff

Abstract

The precise movement of intracellular components requires active transport by molecular motors along the filamentous tracks of the cytoskeleton. While yeast cytoplasmic dynein can walk for some distance along microtubules, mammalian dynein is non-processive. This has raised the question of how this motor can transport cargo. In two recent papers by the Carter, Bullock and Vale labs, mammalian dynein processivity has now been successfully reconstituted in vitro in the presence of adaptor proteins.