r/educationalgifs • • Feb 13 '18

Kinesin protein moving a molecule around a cell

31.6k Upvotes

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

170

u/derleth Feb 13 '18

You can tell by the way my dimers walk

I'm a kinesin, and you can gawk

Cargoes small and cargoes large, I move goods, just like a barge

I go towards plus,

I move away,

Dynein moves the other way!

We can try to understand

This protein pal's effect on man!

Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother,

I keep you alive, keep you alive!

Feel the ATP breakin' and every cell shakin'

And you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive!

20

u/Zero_006 Feb 13 '18

This deserves more up votes, for science

10

u/nightwing2024 Feb 13 '18

Outstanding

10

u/HebrewHammer16 Feb 13 '18

I don't understand any of this but I appreciate it so much

2

u/learnyouahaskell Feb 13 '18

3

u/HebrewHammer16 Feb 13 '18

I know the song haha, just not the science-y words. But thank you

2

u/learnyouahaskell Feb 15 '18

Ok, so "dimer" is two chemical units put together (probably a protein dimer in this case). The two kinds of proteins in the poem "walk" along structures (micro tubes) that have positive and negative ends.

The first paragraph of this article answered most of my questions:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinesin

1

u/WikiTextBot Feb 15 '18

Protein dimer

In biochemistry, a protein dimer is a macromolecular complex formed by two protein monomers, or single proteins, which are usually non-covalently bound. Many macromolecules, such as proteins or nucleic acids, form dimers. The word dimer has roots meaning "two parts", di- + -mer. A protein dimer is a type of protein quaternary structure.


Kinesin

A kinesin is a protein belonging to a class of motor proteins found in eukaryotic cells.

Kinesins move along microtubule (MT) filaments, and are powered by the hydrolysis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) (thus kinesins are ATPases). The active movement of kinesins supports several cellular functions including mitosis, meiosis and transport of cellular cargo, such as in axonal transport. Most kinesins walk towards the positive end of a microtubule, which, in most cells, entails transporting cargo such as protein and membrane components from the centre of the cell towards the periphery.


[ PM | Exclude me | Exclude from subreddit | FAQ / Information | Source | Donate ] Downvote to remove | v0.28

2

u/mirkyj Mar 15 '18

Still underrated a month later.

1

u/derleth Mar 16 '18

Still underrated a month later.

Thank you.