Filopodia sprout from a cell after a cargo-free MyoX (green) dimerizes.

The motor protein MyoX is more than a cellular U-Haul, as Tokuo et al. now show. The protein also helps a cell crawl by muscling actin filaments into position at the front edge of the membrane.

As a cell slithers, it sends out skinny extensions called filopodia that help guide its movements. Previous work has shown that the cargo-hauling protein MyoX spurs formation of these structures. The molecule's head grips and slides along actin filaments, while its tail holds cargo. MyoX travels to the tips of filopodia, and researchers assumed that the cargos it takes there stimulate the extensions to sprout and grow.

That explanation was only half right, as Tokuo et al. found when they tested tailless MyoX molecules that can't ferry anything. Dimers of the trimmed molecules still triggered filopodia, but the...

The Rockefeller University Press
2007
The Rockefeller University Press
2007
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