A Day in the Life of a Motor Protein

our brain is made of billions of nerve cells and they're all connected if we take a closer look a nerve cells seems to have antennas most of them are receivers of information but only one is a transmitter called the axon the isackson is connected to several receivers of other cells forming a gigantic neural network the brain meet John John is a Kinnison a motor protein he lives inside a nerve cell and he has a proper job to ensure that a brain cell does his job properly it needs the continuous flow of building materials proteins they travel through the cell using the cytoskeleton if you would compare a nerve cell with a city the cytoskeleton inside the cell would be the roads and the travelling proteins would be the traffic these materials are towed by motors along the roads and just as in real life there are different kinds of motors and different kinds of roads John's sole purpose in is to deliver his cargo to a specific place in the accent he takes the main roads and he walks in just one direction only John's job may seem easy but it's not he has to overcome a number of obstacles to ensure that the right amount of cargo arrives at the right place to make the journey even more difficult John is not alone other motor proteins ride along with his cargo they haven't woken up yet but that will happen soon the journey starts in the center of the city just like in the center of the cell to enter the axon John has to pass a place called the axon initial segment in this segment there are two kinds of roads the main roads that John uses called the microtubules and a lot of little alleys called Acton and here our brave motor protein meets his first challenge because one of his sleeping travel companions myosin has woken up and starts to cling to the active and there are a lot of alleys only brute force can save John now fate strikes again the other companion Dinan wakes up and he can only walk in the opposite direction of John resulting in a tug of war but there can be only one along the axon in which John travels there are places called synapses hear the accent connects to receivers of the other cells regulating proteins call the shots here this traffic police make sure that all passing traffic gets to the right destination if John's cargo is needed in this synapse he will be stopped and myosins take over his load but today John's car goes but what he does not know that his road is under construction just a few blocks away in our nerve cells the cytoskeleton is changing constantly roads are built but are also broken down facing this kind of obstruction John has to find a detour John isn't the only motor protein on the road there are many more our nerve cells need smooth traffic flow in order to perform work a traffic jam due to problems during the journey may ultimately result in brain disease understanding the challenges John faces could improve treatment or prevention finally John arrives at his destination he has fulfilled his destiny but several other John's are just getting started

Channel: Hoogenraad Lab

Views: 1,153,396

Rating: 4.9336114 out of 5

Keywords: neuron, motor protein, kinesin, hoogenraad, neuronal transport, brain, neuroscience, neurodegeneration, transport, Motor, cytoskeleton, nerve cell, day, life, John

Id: tMKlPDBRJ1E

Length: 5min 13sec (313 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 19 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/sycadel]

I showed a similar video in my sections once. the students were pretty impressed. check out this related craziness about proteins acting as motors.

[u/HypnotizeNLP]

Very cool! Good find!

[u/Cavellian]

OMG, the little head-feet!

[u/GuyOnTheInterweb]

That poor guy! Although at first those other motor proteins looks like dicks, they are also part of regulating the transport, for instance to get around obstacles - it's kind of like shaking the bag of cereals so the raisins come to the top.