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Updated: Jan 3, 2026

Single-Molecule Analysis of Sf9 Purified Superprocessive Kinesin-3 Family Motors
Published on: July 27, 2022
Run length distribution of dimerized kinesin-3 molecular motors: comparison with dimeric kinesin-1
Si-Kao Guo1, Xiao-Xuan Shi1, Peng-Ye Wang1
1Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100190, China.
Abstract:
Kinesin-3 and kinesin-1 molecular motors are two families of the kinesin superfamily. It has been experimentally revealed that in monomeric state kinesin-3 is inactive in motility and cargo-mediated dimerization results in superprocessive motion, with an average run length being more than 10-fold longer than that of kinesin-1. In contrast to kinesin-1 showing normally single-exponential distribution of run lengths, dimerized kinesin-3 shows puzzlingly Gaussian distribution of run lengths. Here, based on our proposed model, we studied computationally the dynamics of kinesin-3 and compared with that of kinesin-1, explaining quantitatively the available experimental data and revealing the origin of superprocessivity and Gaussian run length distribution of kinesin-3. Moreover, predicted results are provided on ATP-concentration dependence of run length distribution and force dependence of mean run length and dissociation rate of kinesin-3.
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