Unintended engineering.

Unintended engineering.

Originally shared by Colin Sullender

Motor protein traversing a microtubule

Kinesin is a motor protein found in eukaryotic cells that helps transport cargo during critical cellular functions such as mitosis and meiosis. This animation depicts the proposed "hand-over-hand" walking mechanism by which the protein traverses a microtubule while carrying a cargo vesicle. The seesaw motion is caused by conformational changes during the binding and hydrolysis of the high-energy molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Because microtubules are polar, motor proteins are only capable of traveling in a specific direction. Most kinesins move from the center of the cell towards the periphery.

Source: https://goo.gl/jdkgy9 (XVIVO + Harvard)

#ScienceGIF #Science #GIF #Protein #Kinesin #Microtubule #Mobility #Cell #Microscopic #Vesicle #Biology #Cellular #Biochemistry #Filaments #ATP #Cargo #Transport