The Role of Kinesin Neck Linker and Neck in Velocity Regulation

Despite the high level of similarity in structural organisation of their motor domains and, consequently, in the mechanism of motility generation, kinesin-5 moves about 25-fold slower than conventional kinesin (kinesin-1). To elucidate the structural motifs contributing to velocity regulation, we expressed a set of Eg5- and KIF5A-based chimeric proteins with interchanged native neck linker and neck elements. Among them, the chimera consisting of the Eg5 catalytic core (residues 1–357) fused to the KIF5A linker and neck (residues 326–450) displayed increased velocity compared to the Eg5 control protein. This is the first evidence that the velocity of the slow-moving motor Eg5 can be elevated by insertion of neck linker and neck elements taken from a fast-moving motor. Whereas the complementary chimera composed of the KIF5A core (1–325) and the Eg5 linker and neck (358–513) was found to be immotile, insertion of the first half-KIF5A linker into this chimera restored motility. Our results indicate that the neck linker and the neck are involved not only in motility generation in general and in determination of movement direction, but also in velocity regulation.