Motor-driven transport has many important roles
Microtubule motors are involved in a wide range of transport
processes. During mitosis, motors help ensure faithful segregation
of chromosomes; in neurons, long-distance transport of axonal vesicles
delivers proteins synthesized in the cell body to synapses
sometimes meters away; and aggregation and disaggregation
of pigment
granules by microtubule motors allows certain
skin cells to rapidly change their color. Certain mRNAs are
localized using microtubule-based transport.
And some viruses have
coopted this machinery to efficiently deliver their genomes to the cell
nucleus. The dynein motor complex
has even been implicated in the initiation
of apoptosis . Understanding
how these motors function in vivo therefore addresses
fundamental problems
in cell biology.
But such investigations may also provide insight into developmental
mechanisms:
and into human pathologies:
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