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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Characterizing the Composition of Molecular Motors on Moving Axonal Cargo Using "Cargo Mapping" Analysis
Published on: October 30, 2014
The kinesin superfamily: tails of functional redundancy
1Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Abstract:
Kinesin is a microtubule-based motility protein that mediates axonal transport and perhaps other intracellular movements in eukaryotic cells. Recent research has indicated that the principal component of kinesin, the kinesin heavy chain, is but one member of an extended superfamily of kinesin-like microtubule motor proteins. These proteins appear to have diverse microtubule-based motility functions--in mitosis, meiosis, vesicle transport and organelle transport. The various kinesin-like molecules may play overlapping or redundant roles in these processes.
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