Cytoskeleton Tutorial

Problem 2: Single Kind of Motor

Explain how a single kind of "motor" can cause movement of a wide variety of substances, including vesicles, chromosomes, proteins, etc.

B.	Multi-gene families of motor proteins have the mechanism for moving along microtubules in common and have the other part of the same protein altered to allow binding to a variety of substances.
	Correct. Nature invents a trick, ie. movement along microtubules, and then uses the mechanism in many different ways. The group of related genes are called a family.