Kinesin protein walking on microtubule

What Hacker News said

Recommends droithomme · 2019-10 · on “Cell and Molecular Biology Animated Textbooks”

> the molecules seem to have intent Take a look at dynein and kinesin walking along microtubules while dragging along their cargo. It's pretty neat. Unknown is how the really simple microtubules get to their destination while building themselves just ahead of the walkers or how the walkers know which turns to take. [this video] [LINK] [this video]

Recommends acqq · 2020-07 · on “Inside the Coronavirus”

Then you have to watch these videos too: [LINK] For example, this looks like a cartoon but it really behaves so (except that the molecules are too small to have the colors, as in other visualizations): [this video]

Recommends dopylitty · 2021-09 · on “Tardigrades Walk”

If you think that’s cool you might also like to see the motor proteins that walk along inside our cells. There are a few types including the ones that make muscles work. Kinesin is fun because it has little legs made of proteins. It gloms onto big bubbles of stuff inside the cell and carries them along pathways to their destination. Chemical reactions cause the proteins to fold in the right way to take each step. This shows how they look. [this video] This explains the mechanisms that they use to walk. [LINK]

Cites jfarlow · 2018-01 · on “DNA seen through the eyes of a coder (2017)”

Proteins are 1-dimensional chains of 'lego-like' molecules that fold into atomically-precise 3D tools. There are ~20 types of legos that have properties that differ along a number of axis like hydrophobicity, charge, reactivity, size, flexibility, etc. And those 20, in combination, seem to be enough to build all of the tools life needs to interact with its environment. Most proteins are assemblies of a few hundred such 'legos' (again, of which there are 20 types). Those 3D structures then, because they're encoded in the 'tape-like' DNA, can actually themselves be modular, rearranged, and this chunk can be lopped off and plopped onto that chunk, or assembled with this chunk over here. When yo

Cites nosianu · 2022-02 · on “Citizen sleuths exposed pollution from a century-old Michigan factory (2019)”

Chemicals don't need to chemically react. Especially for biology, merely existing is enough. Lots of biological regulation is done by influencing three-dimensional shapes of the huge highly complex structures called proteins. Organic chemistry especially is a science of complex three dimensional structures and its dynamic changes, at least as important as actually altering the chemical structure. Often they are not static but have moving parts, because not all bonds restrict movement of the atoms connected through that bond in relation to the other part. Many have what's call binding sites - other molecules fitting to those sites won't be altered or alter the chemical structure of the protei

Cites tibbydudeza · 2022-05 · on “Ancient Genes for Symbiosis Hint at Mitochondria’s Origins”

You referring to the motor proteins Kinesin and dynein that uses ATP ???. They are like little stick men pulling stuff along the highways of the cell. [this video]

Cites s1artibartfast · 2022-07 · on “I should have loved biology”

I had a similar revelation for structural biology, applying the physics I learned for bridges and buildings to microscopic proteins. They are structurally like a cathedral built by a blind and deranged architect. The fact that mechanically bend, pivot, and move like a complex machine at a micro scale to do real work is the most sci-fi thing I can conceive of. Think of a even a simple walking protein like Kinesin [1]. What is not shown in the video is that this is all happening in a hurricane of molecules battering it from all sides. Each part of the structure is being pushed, pulled, bent, robot made out of sticks and rubber bands. [this video]

Cites cosmojg · 2023-08 · on “After 118 days, GPT Unicorn has produced a unicorn”

Honest question, why do you find it scary? I agree that some people take it too far, but most seem to be using metaphor to abstract away the underlying complexities and facilitate conversation. I did the same thing back in college, anthropomorphizing cells and even molecules when I was learning about microbiology and biophysics (e.g., kinesins[1] are a family of postal workers who work hard to deliver packages to their clients in a timely manner, and they spend their free time going for strolls and practicing on their favorite tightropes). I now do it in my day-to-day work at an AI/ML shop to communicate not just what the entire pipeline is doing, but what individuals layers or encoders are