Richard J. McKenney, Ph.D. - US grants

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Tuning of the Biophysical Parameters of Cytoplasmic Dynein 2 for Intraflagellar Transport Dyneins are large and complex molecular motors that transport cargo inside of living cells. There are two main classes of dyneins, the more well characterized dynein 1 family and the less understood dynein 2 family. While dynein 1 has a broad range of intracellular functions, dynein 2's role is restricted to transport within specialized cell extensions called cilia and flagella. The long-term objective of this proposal is to fully characterize the dynein 2 motor at the single molecule level and provide a genetic system for manipulating the motor in living organisms in order to determine the functional consequences of these single molecule properties. Because cilia are implicated in human diseases such as polycystic kidney disease and retinal degeneration, and dynein 2 is essential for normal functioning of these organelles, this proposal is directly relevant to human health. The proposal is divided into two core aims: the in vitro characterization of the dynein 2 motor properties at the single molecule level and the in vivo manipulation of these measured properties in the genetic model Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). We will clone out a minimal dynein 2 motor domain from C. elegans and express the protein using the baculovirus system. We will characterize the enzymatic and motile properties of dynein 2 using a combination of biochemical and biophysical approaches. Parameters such as ATPase, stall force, processivity and velocity will be measured in vitro and mutations will be sought to modulate these single molecule properties. We will then reintroduce the mutated dynein 2 protein into a null background in C. elegans. This will allow us to determine how distinct biophysical properties relate to dynein 2's functions in vivo. Changes in single molecule parameters such as force production and processivity will be assayed for the first time in a living system to determine how critical those parameters are for normal motor function. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Ciliopathies are a broad spectrum of human diseases caused by malfunctions of cell protrusions called cilia. Cilia are built and maintained by specialized transport proteins whose functions are incompletely understood. This project will investigate, in detail, one of those transport proteins to determine how it works as a molecular motor and how its motor functions are related to the normal functioning of cilia. )

Title: Coordination of molecular motor activity in intracellular transport and assembly of cytoskeletal architecture. P.I. ? Richard J. McKenney Research Summary Intracellular transport is essential for cellular homeostasis in eukaryotes. Much of this process is carried out by molecular motors that convert the chemical energy from ATP hydrolysis into motion along the actin and microtubule cytoskeletal networks. Decades of research has uncovered structural and molecular details that explain how many of these motors move along their filament tracks in isolation. In the cellular milieu, most of these motors act in concert with complex regulatory machinery that links them to their respective cargos, modulates their motile properties, and dictates spatiotemporal activity. How individual motor output is controlled by this machinery is currently not clear and difficult to dissect in the complex environment of the cell. In addition, many cargos are moved simultaneously by motors of opposite polarity, in a process called bidirectional transport. How individual motors are recruited to cargo, activated, and integrated with other classes of motors presents a large challenge to the field. Further, the activities of disparate motors are harnessed to build and maintain critical cytoskeletal structures such as the mitotic spindle, cilium, and cleavage furrow. How motor and regulatory activities are coordinated to drive the self-assembly of such structures is currently a significant barrier to understanding normal and diseased cellular physiology. This application seeks to develop novel assays and tools to study the complexity of motor recruitment and regulation, bidirectional transport of cargos, and the self-assembly of cytoskeletal structures driven by motors and associated molecules. Our approach to combine biochemistry and single- molecule analysis towards in vitro reconstitutions that test molecular function, and translate our findings into in vivo systems that test hypotheses generated by these reconstitutions, will open up fruitful long-term avenues of research. We propose to: 1) Reconstitute and study the recruitment, regulation, and motility of cytoplasmic dynein and kinesin motors bound to membranous cargo through the endogenous Rab GTPase machinery that is known to link these motors to endocytic vesicles and mitochondria in cells, and 2) Reconstitute and study functions of dynein and kinesin motors that drive the self-assembly of the mitotic spindle. These broad goals build and expand on our expertise and previous work in dissecting the regulatory mechanisms of the cytoplasmic dynein motor, and aim to provide powerful new tools useful towards dissecting complex motor function. Our work will illuminate basic molecular and cell biological principles that drive cellular homeostasis and provide insight into the pathological mechanisms that arise from molecular motor malfunction.