Speaker
Prof.
Heiko Rieger
(Universität des Saarlandes)
Description
Targeted transport of vesicles, organelles and other types
of cargo is necessary for living cells to maintain their
complex internal structure. Molecular motors attached to
this cargo power the long-range traffic of cargo along
microtubules in a bidirectional way. The attachment of two
kinds of motors, one pulling towards the cell periphery and
one towards the cell center, lead to a tug-of-war scenario
and a cargo displacemnt distribution that depends very
sensitively on microscopic details. Recently it was observed
that a novel mechanism of vesicle pairing appears to be
necessary for an efficient transport of perforin containing
granules to the immunulogical synapse of activated cytotoxic
T lymphocytes. In this short presentation we discuss the
aspects of this scenario that can be understood within the
framework of the tug-of-war model.
