Journal of Cell Science 116, e1101 (2003)
Copyright © 2003 The Company of Biologists Limited
Motors for signalling modules
Kinesin motors transport a variety of different cargos along microtubules.
An important goal of motor research has therefore been to identify the
proteins that link them to these different cargos. Surprisingly perhaps, these
do not appear to form a specific family of linker proteins but instead are
often adaptors or scaffold proteins identified in other contexts. In a
Commentary on p. 2125, Bruce
Schnapp discusses recent work on kinesin linkers, focusing on the idea that
such proteins allow kinesins to transport preassembled signalling modules.
Studies of the mouse neuronal kinesin KIF17, for example, have shown that it
interacts with the PDZ-domain protein LIN-10, which forms part of a complex
that binds glutamate receptors on transport vesicles. Similarly, kinesin I
binds to JNK-interacting protein (JIP) and is thereby able to transport a
preassembled JNK MAP kinase cascade around cells. Kinesin I also binds to
amyloid precursor protein (APP), transporting it along axons in cargo
vesicles, and to GRIP1, a neuronal signalling scaffold protein. Schnapp
concludes that scaffold proteins thus cannot only direct the flow of
information in signalling cascades but also control their trafficking and
localization.
Related articles in JCS:
- Trafficking of signaling modules by kinesin motors
- Bruce J. Schnapp
JCS 2003 116: 2125-2135.
[Abstract]
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