Speaker: Yonggun Jun (Associate Professor, Lab for experimental cellular biophysics and nonequilibrium physics, Department of Physics at National Central University)

Date: 2018.12.07 (Fri.)  16:00-18:00pm

Location: 12 Floor , Conference room, DA-AN Branch, Taipei Medical University

Abstract:

The kinesin motor protein plays an essential role in intracellular transport of cargos along microtubules inside cells. Although its single-molecular properties are intensively studied, it is little known how multiple motors work together as a team and how they are regulated by protein Kinases. Here, we demonstrate the new pathway for kinesin regulation by casein kinase 2 (CK2), where kinesin becomes inactive in a tail-independent fashion and is subsequently reactivated by CK2. In this talk, I will first introduce the optical tweezers that have been widely used in the study in biological systems since it has been developed by Arthur Ashkin, a Nobel Laureate in 2018. Then I will present how CK2 regulates the activity of Kinesin-1 and thus contributes to long-distance transport. I will also discuss the effect of CK2 on the activity of Eg5 that is engaged in cell division. It is observed that the CK2 reverses Eg5 activity even when Eg5 is inactivated by an Eg5 inhibitor which is currently in development for cancer therapy.