2. Academic Validation
  3. The preprophase band-associated kinesin-14 OsKCH2 is a processive minus-end-directed microtubule motor

The preprophase band-associated kinesin-14 OsKCH2 is a processive minus-end-directed microtubule motor

  • Nat Commun. 2018 Mar 14;9(1):1067. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-03480-w.
Kuo-Fu Tseng 1,  Pan Wang 1 2,  Yuh-Ru Julie Lee 3,  Joel Bowen 4,  Allison M Gicking 1,  Lijun Guo 2,  Bo Liu 5,  Weihong Qiu 6 7
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Physics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA.
  • 2 Institute of Photobiophysics, Henan University, Kaifeng, 475004, Henan, China.
  • 3 Department of Plant Biology, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
  • 4 Department of Mathematics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA.
  • 5 Department of Plant Biology, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA, 95616, USA. [email protected].
  • 6 Department of Physics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA. [email protected].
  • 7 Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA. [email protected].
PMID: 29540705 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03480-w
Abstract

In Animals and fungi, cytoplasmic dynein is a processive minus-end-directed motor that plays dominant roles in various intracellular processes. In contrast, land Plants lack cytoplasmic dynein but contain many minus-end-directed kinesin-14s. No plant Kinesin-14 is known to produce processive motility as a homodimer. OsKCH2 is a plant-specific Kinesin-14 with an N-terminal actin-binding domain and a central motor domain flanked by two predicted coiled-coils (CC1 and CC2). Here, we show that OsKCH2 specifically decorates preprophase band microtubules in vivo and transports actin filaments along microtubules in vitro. Importantly, OsKCH2 exhibits processive minus-end-directed motility on single microtubules as individual homodimers. We find that CC1, but not CC2, forms the coiled-coil to enable OsKCH2 dimerization. Instead, our results reveal that removing CC2 renders OsKCH2 a nonprocessive motor. Collectively, these results show that land Plants have evolved unconventional Kinesin-14 homodimers with inherent minus-end-directed processivity that may function to compensate for the loss of cytoplasmic dynein.

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