As many diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, have been linked to the defective functioning of motor proteins in cell transport systems, understanding the intricacies of how motor proteins work in their native crowded cell environments is essential to understanding what goes wrong when they function incorrectly. Molecular motors are specialized proteins that bind to a variety of organelles, referred to as cell cargo, and transport them along microtubule filaments (structural proteins commonly referred to as the highway of the cell). Motor proteins often work in groups, binding to one cargo and inching together along the filament’s path in the cell.
Click here for original story, Researchers study effects of cellular crowding on the cell’s transport system
Source: Phys.org