Not just a pretty cargo carrier: The other face of kinesins

Abstract

If you've only ever heard of one kinesin, it's likely to be one that walks along microtubules and carries cargo around in the cell. However, this type of kinesin is only part of the kinesin story. The 'kinesin superfamily' is a large family of microtubule motors and members of the superfamily are critical to a variety of cellular functions. This article focuses on a class of kinesins that regulate the growth and shrinkage dynamics of microtubules. These kinesins orchestrate the construction and maintenance of microtubule structures required temporarily by cells, such as the apparatus that separates replicate chromosomes during cell division.