Trends in Plant Science
Volume 2, Issue 1, January 1997, Pages 29-37
Journal home page for Trends in Plant Science

Review
Molecular motors in higher plants

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1360-1385(96)10051-0Get rights and content

Until recently, it was difficult to investigate how plants generated intracellular motility. However, the identification and characterization of molecular motors has improved our understanding of the underlying mechanisms involved, and should facilitate new experimental approaches. Cytoplasmic streaming — the most prominent form of intracellular movement in nondividing plant cells — can be explained by the activity of an actin-based motor first purified from lily pollen tubes. Mitosis and cytokinesis involve microtubule-based movement, and experiments now implicate various microtubule-based motors (kinesin-like proteins) in aspects of cell division. Some of these plant motors have unique features and forms of regulation not seen before in other eukaryotes.

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  • Cited by (76)

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      One class of these includes motor proteins: dyneins associated with MTs, myosins associated with MFs, and kinesins, which can associate with both MTs and MFs. Kinesins are able to move vesicles or other MTs relative to the MT to which they are bound or move the MT relative to other larger cellular structures (Asada and Collings, 1997; Asada and Shibaoka, 1994; Asada et al., 1997; Song et al., 1997). Another class of cytoskeletal binding proteins are structural and are involved in cross-linking MTs to each other or to other cellular structures.

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      A different amino-terminal motor kinesin-related protein, PAKRP1, accumulates at the overlapping plus ends of phragmoplast microtubules, and its functional inhibition appears to disrupt their overall organization [19]. Several kinesin-related proteins with carboxy-terminal motor domains have been implicated in plant cell division although functional evidence is lacking (reviewed in [21]). Among the latter group is the KCBP from Arabidopsis that also accumulates in the phragmoplast.

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