Background: |
A kinesin is a protein belonging to a class of motor proteins found in eukaryotic cells. Kinesins move along microtubule filaments, and are powered by the hydrolysis of ATP (thus kinesins are ATPases). Kinesins were discovered as microtubule (MT)-based anterograde intracellular transport motors. The founding member of this superfamily, kinesin-1, was isolated as a heterotetrameric fast axonal organelle transport motor consisting of 2 identical motor subunits (KHC) and 2 "light chains" (KLC) via microtubule affinity purification from neuronal cell extracts. |