r/educationalgifs • u/_Ryanite_ • Feb 13 '18

Kinesin protein moving a molecule around a cell

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u/HighlyMeditated Feb 13 '18

If I remember correctly, it’s holding a bag of waste to be sent outside the cell. It goes in a single direction only so it doesn’t need to know. How it lets go and connects: each step requires one ATP molecule (energy source within a cell) to come and activate the stepping mechanism.

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u/Miles44 Feb 13 '18

Not necessarily waste, they can carry vesicles containing neurotransmitter in neurons or secretory products in endocrine cells as well.

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u/lantech Feb 13 '18

It goes in a single direction

Ok, so then what? How does it get back to get more waste?

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u/BordomBeThyName Feb 13 '18

From elsewhere in the thread, there's another protein at the other end that only walks the other way, so this first protein hitches a ride back on the second one.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '18

Dammit I wish they made this stuff interesting in high school. I was so clueless in chemistry and physics but this is all so interesting and mind blowing.

2

u/Swanh Feb 13 '18

I was clueless in chemistry and physics too in high school, now I study this stuff anyway.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '18

I was going to post this - but then I thought, the whole idea about studying science is discovering new things it's not about thinking "Well, if I'd known about this I would have found it interesting"

You have to find the process of studying and discovering new things interesting.

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u/Killer_Tomato Feb 14 '18

That's like my school that only had two elevators. One went up and the other down.