Molecular Motor

• An international team of researchers, including from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, has reported a new kind of molecular motor.

About Molecular Motor

• Molecular motors are a class of proteins that drive intracellular movement by converting chemical energy to mechanical work along cytoskeletal filaments.
  • The cytoskeleton of a cell is made up of microtubules, actin filaments, and intermediate filaments.
  • These structures give the cell its shape and help organize the cell’s parts.
• They are very important as cells need to move things, such as pull two organelles together, move cargo towards and away from the nucleus, and power the movement of molecules inside cells.
• Disruption or deregulation in these processes can lead to different diseases.