Getting a grip on slippery cell membranes
Monday, June 27, 2016 - 13:31
in Biology & Nature
Within each of our cells is a distribution system that uses molecular motors and filaments to move proteins, organelles, and other tiny bits of cargo along its inner framework, or cytoskeleton. To achieve this feat, the motors and filaments must tug on flexible membranes that surround the cargo packages, but these membranes, made of fatty molecules called lipids, are extremely slippery. Scientists have long wondered how the molecular transport machinery is able to maintain its grip.