#kinesin

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Reminder, the premise is “would a normie think it’s weird to find them attractive?” (Would they have to “hear me out?”) NOT “smash-or-pass”

Busy Builders

When you’re constructing roads, you need the right components to arrive in the right places at the right time, or you end up with dead ends. The same goes for building neural networks. Here, building blocks are transported along developing neural projections using motor proteins. One such motor protein, kinesin-1, contains several subunits that are implicated in ensuring the right cargo arrives at the right destination within a neuron. Researchers focus on one subunit, in particular, kinesin light chain 4 (KLC4). Comparing live imaging of normal zebrafish (pictured) and mutants lacking KLC4 – each with fluorescently-tagged spinal neurons – reveals that projections in mutants don't stabilise or grow correctly. Plus in the mutant, projections forming the peripheral nervous system incorrectly behaved like those of the central nervous system by bundling together. KLC4 is, therefore, vital for building neurons and establishing the identity of neurons in the peripheral versus central nervous system.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Video from work by Elizabeth M Haynes and colleagues

Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife, October 2022

This was originally made for @bayan_region’s Techno contest on Instagram, but I think it can fit in my arts & science region as well. This Wishiwashi-like gimmick is based off of swarm robotics where many units are controlled together to make a system. The Swarm form is based off of the biologically-occurring nanomotor kinesin as a nod to nanoscience.

Itsibitsi [Solo Form] (Steel/Bug): They are able to slip into small spaces easily and regroup within an enclosure. They are designed to wield great force through the power of teamwork as they can easily connect on top of each other.

Tube Travels

Try reading a book from back to front and you'll be left confused. You need a sense of direction; left to right, front to back. Neurons need this too to function correctly. Structural elements called microtubules have an important role to play in this. They have a plus end and a minus end. Plus ends preferentially grow towards neuronal projections called axons, while they're repelled from growing into dendrites, neuronal projections that grow in the opposite direction to axons. Researchers investigated how this process is regulated by studying two neuron types in fruit fly larvae, pictured using fluorescence microscopy. The protein kinesin-2 is already known to move cargo along microtubules towards their plus ends. Using genetic interference to reduce kinesin-2 levels, the team found microtubule plus ends strayed more into dendrites, as captured using live-cell imaging. Kinesin-2 is therefore also important in helping neurons maintain a sense of direction

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Image by Amrita Mukherjee and colleagues

Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife, July 2020