Abstract
Molecular motors play relevant roles on the regulation of mitochondria size and shape, essential properties for the cell homeostasis. In this work, we tracked single rod-shaped mitochondria with nanometer precision to explore the performance of microtubule motor teams during processive anterograde and retrograde transport. We analyzed simultaneously the organelle size and verified that mitochondria retracted during retrograde transport with their leading tip moving slower in comparison with the rear tip. In contrast, mitochondria preserved their size during anterograde runs indicating a different performance of plus-end directed teams. These results were interpreted considering the different performance of dynein and kinesin teams and provide valuable information on the collective action of motors during mitochondria transport.
Highlights
Intracellular transport relies on molecular motors that step along cytoskeletal filaments dragging cargoes through the crowded cytoplasm
We explored the performance of microtubule-motor teams focussing our analysis on the transport of rod-shaped mitochondria in Xenopus laevis melanophores
In order to test whether the organelle changed its size during periods of active motion, we determined the length of the mitochondria at every frame of the movie and calculated the length variation L as described in ‘Materials and methods’ section
Summary
Intracellular transport relies on molecular motors that step along cytoskeletal filaments dragging cargoes through the crowded cytoplasm (reviewed in [1,2]). Different lines of research in a variety of cell types have demonstrated that microtubule-dependent motors team up during intracellular transport. The team performance depends on the biophysical properties of the motors [3,4,5]), the number of motors participating in the team [6,7], and their mechanical coupling when attached to the cargo surface [8,9,10] amongst other factors. Despite years of research in this field have improved our knowledge on the function of molecular motors, we still do not know many relevant aspects of the collective action of motors during intracellular transport
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