Biochemical Investigations into the Kinesin-2 Chemomechanical Cycle

Abstract

Member of kinesin-7 family CENP-E is a kinetochore-associated plus-end-directed motor, which is important for faithful chromosome segregation in mitosis. CENP-E assists chromosome transport to the spindle midzone, where the microtubule plus ends are located. Here we report that once reaching the dynamic microtubule ends in vitro, CENP-E converts from a lateral transporter into a microtubule tip-tracker, stably associating with the tips of both assembling and disassembling microtubules. We show that the binding between kinetochores and dynamic microtubule ends is destabilized in live cells when CENP-E function is perturbed via an inhibition or RNAi depletion, implying 326a Monday,