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Published 28 February 2002. doi:10.1083/jcb.200109047
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© The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525/2002/2/715 $5.00
The Journal of Cell Biology, Volume 156, Number 4, February 28, 2002 715-724

Article

Coordination of opposite-polarity microtubule motors



Steven P. Gross1,4, Michael A. Welte2,4, Steven M. Block3 and Eric F. Wieschaus4

1 Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697
2 Department of Biology, W.M. Keck Center for Cellular Visualization, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454
3 Department of Biological Sciences and Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
4 Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544

Address correspondence to E.F. Wieschaus, Dept. of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544. Tel.: (609) 258-5383. Fax: (609) 258-1547. E-mail: ewieschaus{at}molbio.princeton.edu

Many cargoes move bidirectionally, frequently reversing course between plus- and minus-end microtubule travel. For such cargoes, the extent and importance of interactions between the opposite-polarity motors is unknown. In this paper we test whether opposite-polarity motors on lipid droplets in Drosophila embryos are coordinated and avoid interfering with each other's activity, or whether they engage in a tug of war. To this end we impaired the minus-end transport machinery using dynein and dynactin mutations, and then investigated whether plus-end motion was improved or disrupted. We observe a surprisingly severe impairment of plus-end motion due to these alterations of minus-end motor activity. These observations are consistent with a coordination hypothesis, but cannot be easily explained with a tug of war model. Our measurements indicate that dynactin plays a crucial role in the coordination of plus- and minus-end–directed motors. Specifically, we propose that dynactin enables dynein to participate efficiently in bidirectional transport, increasing its ability to stay "on" during minus-end motion and keeping it "off" during plus-end motion.

Key Words: cytoplasmic dynein; motor coordination; tug of war; dynactin; bidirectional


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