P. Ohi lab’s first paper
P.Ohi lab’s first paper hit the press today in Current Biology, this issue
The Kinesin-8 Kif18A Dampens Microtubule Plus-End Dynamics
Yaqing Du1, Chauca A. English1 and Ryoma Ohi
1 Department of Cell and DevelopmentalBiology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, 465 21st AvenueSouth, Nashville, TN 37232-8240, USA
Received 2 June 2009;
revised 1 December 2009;
accepted 21 December 2009.
Published online: February 11, 2010.
Available online 11 February 2010.
Summary
Motility is a fundamentally importantproperty of most members of the kinesin superfamily, but a rare subsetof kinesins are also able to alter microtubule dynamics. Atkinetochore-microtubule plus ends, the kinesin-8 family member Kif18Ais essential to align mitotic chromosomes at the spindle equator duringcell division, but how it accomplishes this function is unclear. Wereport here that Kif18A is a plus-end-directed motor that inhibits thepolymerization dynamics of microtubule plus ends without destabilizingthem, distinguishing Kif18A from the budding yeast ortholog Kip3. Ininterphase cells, Kif18A uses this activity to reduce the overalldynamicity of microtubule plus ends and effectively constrains thedistance over which plus ends grow and shrink. Our findings suggestthat kinesin-8 family members have developed biochemically distinctactivities throughout evolution and have implications for how Kif18Aaffects kinetochore-microtubule plus-end dynamics during mitosis inanimal cells.
Highlights
► Kif18A translocates to and stalls atmicrotubule plus ends, where it blocks dynamics ► Unlike yeast Kip3 andthe kinesin-13s, Kif18A is not a microtubule depolymerase ► In cells,Kif18A limits the distance over which microtubule plus ends grow andshrink
Author Keywords: CELLBIO