Abstract
Bipolar kinesin-5 motor proteins perform multiple intracellular functions, mainly during mitotic cell division. Their specialized structural characteristics enable these motors to perform their essential functions by crosslinking and sliding apart antiparallel microtubules (MTs). In this review, we discuss the specialized structural features of kinesin-5 motors, and the mechanisms by which these features relate to kinesin-5 functions and motile properties. In addition, we discuss the multiple roles of the kinesin-5 motors in dividing as well as in non-dividing cells, and examine their roles in pathogenetic conditions. We describe the recently discovered bidirectional motility in fungi kinesin-5 motors, and discuss its possible physiological relevance. Finally, we also focus on the multiple mechanisms of regulation of these unique motor proteins.
Highlights
Bipolar kinesin-5 motor proteins perform multiple intracellular functions, mainly during mitotic cell division
These kinesin-related motor proteins were found to interfere with the dynamics of the mitotic spindle, a microtubule (MT)-based bipolar structure that facilitates chromosome segregation during mitosis (Figure 1)
Schizosaccharomyces pombe Cut7 was found to be essential for spindle pole body (SPB) separation during spindle formation [3], while Xenopus laevis Eg5 (XlEg5), which is only expressed during first rapid replication following egg fertilization [4], was found to be crucial for mitotic spindle formation by moving towards the plus-end of MTs [3,5]
Summary
Following the discovery of kinesin in 1985 [1], the first evidence indicating that kinesinrelated motor proteins play crucial roles in mitotic chromosome segregation emerged soon after in the early 1990s. Schizosaccharomyces pombe Cut was found to be essential for SPB separation during spindle formation [3], while Xenopus laevis Eg5 (XlEg5), which is only expressed during first rapid replication following egg fertilization [4], was found to be crucial for mitotic spindle formation by moving towards the plus-end of MTs [3,5] These three motors share higher homology relative to their homology with DmKHC [3,4] and, it was suggested that BimC, Cut, and XlEg5 correspond to members of a separate sub-family of kinesin motors, termed the BimC sub-family [6].
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