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Updated: Aug 3, 2026

Myosin-Specific Adaptations of In vitro Fluorescence Microscopy-Based Motility Assays
Published on: February 4, 2021
Do unconventional myosins exert functions in dynamics of membrane compartments?
E Coudrier1, A Durrbach, D Louvard
1Institut Pasteur, Département de Biologie Moléculaire, CNRS URA 1149, Paris, France.
Abstract:
Unconventional myosins have now been identified in amoeba as well as in higher eucaryotic cells. Their cellular localization, their ability to bind membrane vesicles and their ability to produce in vitro movement suggest that they can generate forces on the plasma membrane relative to actin filaments as well as on membrane compartments relative to actin. Genetic approaches and biochemical analysis of cells over-producing nonfunctional domains of unconventional myosins have provided direct evidence for a role of unconventional myosins in movement of intracellular vesicles and have allowed us to formulate hypotheses about the possible mechanisms by which unconventional myosins could participate in the intracellular transport of membrane proteins and secretory proteins.
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