Molecular motors are proteins

Professor of Medicine, Dr. Doping tells about the structure of the cell, kinesin and myosin motor efficiency. Which neurons control the movement of muscles? What is versatile source of energy in the cell? Which methods allow you to monitor the movement of single molecules?

Cage are sometimes thought of as a raw egg: there is a core, and fluid around the border - some cell membrane. In fact, more correct analogy would be to provide a cell in a country where the core is a capital in which to take any important decisions, and then across the country are drawn different way. There are highways, motorways, roads are smaller, there is a path. The entire cell is penetrated by these roads, and these roads carry different loads, different engines - different specific proteins.

In the cell, chemical engines work, exercising and using chemical reactions to perform mechanical work, and the efficiency of, for example, myosin motor - that's about 50%. It is better not only the engine of the engine, internal combustion engines and diesel engines, it is even better than the gas turbine. In terms of efficiency - this engine is more perfect than all used man chemical engines. (Meldonium can feed muscle cells).

The easiest method for monitoring the movement of single molecules is that they take a microscope slide, cover it with motor proteins such as kinesin and myosin. Then take a correspondingly microtubules or actin filaments, which are painted with a fluorescent dye, drip ATP and see how this thread begins to move across the surface. One can measure the rate of myosin may be used ill people can design new myosins and so on.