Dear Editor,Since September 2012, the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) cases have been reported in more than 27 countries, and more than 2,000 cases have been confirmed in the laboratory (http:/...Dear Editor,Since September 2012, the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) cases have been reported in more than 27 countries, and more than 2,000 cases have been confirmed in the laboratory (http://www.who.int/emergencies/mers-cov/en/). MERS-CoV causes an acute and severe respiratory illness with a high mortality rate(~35%) in humans (Shi et al., 2017, Zaki et al., 2012).Neutralizing antibodies targeting the spike of MERS-CoV have been shown to be a therapeutic option for treatment of lethal disease (Agrawal et al., 2016, Ying et al., 2014).展开更多
Membrane tubes are important functional elements for riving cells. Experiments have found that membrane tubes can be extracted from giant lipid vesicles by groups of kinesin. How these motors cooperate in extracting t...Membrane tubes are important functional elements for riving cells. Experiments have found that membrane tubes can be extracted from giant lipid vesicles by groups of kinesin. How these motors cooperate in extracting the membrane tube is a very important issue but still unclear so far. In this paper, we propose a cooperation mechanism called two-track-dumbbell model, in which kinesin is regarded as a dumbbell with an end （tail domain） tethered on the fluid-like membrane and the other end （head domain） stepping on the microtubule. Taking account of the elasticity of kinesin molecule and the excluded volume effect of both the head domain and the tail domain of kinesin, which are not considered in previous models, we simulate the growth process of the membrane tube pulled by kinesin motors. Our results indicate that in the case of strong or moderate exclusion of motor tails, the average number of motors pulling the tube can be as high as 9 and thus motors moving along a single microtubule protofilament can generate enough force to extract membrane tubes from vesicles. This result is different from previous studies and may be tested by future experiments.展开更多
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFD0500300 to Wenjie Tan)
文摘Dear Editor,Since September 2012, the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) cases have been reported in more than 27 countries, and more than 2,000 cases have been confirmed in the laboratory (http://www.who.int/emergencies/mers-cov/en/). MERS-CoV causes an acute and severe respiratory illness with a high mortality rate(~35%) in humans (Shi et al., 2017, Zaki et al., 2012).Neutralizing antibodies targeting the spike of MERS-CoV have been shown to be a therapeutic option for treatment of lethal disease (Agrawal et al., 2016, Ying et al., 2014).
基金Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China(973 Program)under Grant No.2013CB932800National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos.11205123,11075015,and 11105218
文摘Membrane tubes are important functional elements for riving cells. Experiments have found that membrane tubes can be extracted from giant lipid vesicles by groups of kinesin. How these motors cooperate in extracting the membrane tube is a very important issue but still unclear so far. In this paper, we propose a cooperation mechanism called two-track-dumbbell model, in which kinesin is regarded as a dumbbell with an end （tail domain） tethered on the fluid-like membrane and the other end （head domain） stepping on the microtubule. Taking account of the elasticity of kinesin molecule and the excluded volume effect of both the head domain and the tail domain of kinesin, which are not considered in previous models, we simulate the growth process of the membrane tube pulled by kinesin motors. Our results indicate that in the case of strong or moderate exclusion of motor tails, the average number of motors pulling the tube can be as high as 9 and thus motors moving along a single microtubule protofilament can generate enough force to extract membrane tubes from vesicles. This result is different from previous studies and may be tested by future experiments.
