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Molecular Cell Biology Section

John A Hammer, III, PhD, Principal Investigator

The long range goals of the section are to identify and characterize unconventional myosins, and to define their roles in the motility of cells and organelles. Efforts focus primarily on Dictyostelium and mouse as model systems. We use a variety of approaches to attain these goals, including (i) biochemical and biophysical characterization of purified or bacculovirus-expressed myosins, (ii) localization of myosins using light immunofluorescence microscopy, immumoelectron microscopy, the expression of myosin/GFP chimeras, and subcellular fractionation, (iii) identification of proteins that interact with myosins using biochemical and molecular genetic approaches, (iv) creation of cell lines/animials that lack particular unconventional myosins using homologous recombination/ antisense RNA expression, and (v) characterization of these mutants using a variety of cell biological assays, quantitative video microscopy of cellular and intracellular motility, and transmission electron microscopy.

Aggregated Dictyostelium

Aggregated Dictyostelium cells stained for F-actin (red) and myosin IC (green). Yellow indicates overlapping localization.

Mel-c melanocyte

Mel-c melanocyte treated with cytochalasin and stained for F-actin (blue), microtubules (red), and the melanosome marker TRP-1 (green).

Movies

Video Sequences of Melanosome Dynamics
Wu, X., Bowers, B., Rao, K., Wei, Q., and Hammer, J.A. III (1998) Visualization of melanosome dynamics within wild type and dilute melanocytes suggests a paradigm for myosin V function in vivo. J. Cell Biol. 143 (7)

(Note: To play MPEG movies below you may need to download one of the following players:)

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  Image   Description   File Size
“Sequence #1 thumbnail image”   Sequence #1: Melanosome movements in a heavily melanized   dilute melanocyte.   574 KB
“Sequence #2 thumbnail image”   Sequence #2: Melanosome movements in a lightly melanized   dilute melanocyte.   470 KB
“Sequence #3 thumbnail image”   Sequence #3: Melanosome movements within the thin dendrite of   a dilute melanocyte.   235 KB
“Sequence #4 thumbnail image”   Sequence #4: Melanosome movements within a large dendritic   extension of a dilute melanocyte.   544 KB
“Sequence #5a thumbnail image”   Sequence #5a: A dilute melanocyte before the addition of   nocodazole (notice cell extension).   882 KB
“Sequence #5b thumbnail image”   Sequence #5b: After the addition of nocodazole (the same cell   shown in seq#5a).   194 KB
“Sequence #6a thumbnail image”   Sequence #6a: A dilute melanocyte before the addition of   nocodazole. (Notice cell center.)   306 KB
“Sequence #6b thumbnail image”   Sequence #6b: After the addition of nocodazole (the same cell   shown in seq#6a).   264 KB
“Sequence #7 thumbnail image”   Sequence #7: 30 minutes after nocodazole washout (the same   cell shown in seq#6b)   779 KB
“Sequence #8 thumbnail image”   Sequence #8: Melanosome dynamics within a well-spread wild   type melanocyte exhibiting an even distribution of melanosomes.   507 KB
“Sequence #9a thumbnail image”   Sequence #9a: Low mag image of melanosome dynamics within a   wild type melanocyte exhibiting a prominent accumulation of   melanosomes at the dendritic tip.   909 KB
“Sequence #9b thumbnail image”   Sequence #9b: High mag image of melanosome dynamics within   the dendrite of the cell shown in seq.#9a.   509 KB
“Sequence #9c1 thumbnail image”   Sequence #9c1: Movements of individual melanosomes within the   dendrite shown in seq.#9b (centripetal).   46 KB
“Sequence #9c2 thumbnail image”   Sequence #9c2: Movements of individual melanosomes within the   dendrite shown in seq.#9b (centripetal).   61 KB
“Sequence #9c3 thumbnail image”   Sequence #9c3: Movements of individual melanosomes within the   dendrite shown in seq.#9b (centrifugal).   61 KB
“Sequence #10a thumbnail image”   Sequence #10a: Low mag image of melanosome dynamics within   a wild type melanocyte exhibiting a prominent accumulation of   melanosomes along the edges of its dendritic extension.   762 KB
“Sequence #10b thumbnail image”   Sequence #10b: High mag image of melanosome dynamics within   a wild type melanocyte exhibiting a prominent accumulation of   melanosomes along the edges of its dendritic extension.   1009 KB
“Sequence #10c1 thumbnail image”   Sequence #10c1: Movements of individual melanosomes within   the dendrite shown in seq.#10b (centripetal)   157 KB
“Sequence #10c2 thumbnail image”   Sequence #10c2: Movements of individual melanosomes within the   dendrite shown in seq.#10b (centripetal)   101 KB
“Sequence #10c3 thumbnail image”   Sequence #10c3: Movements of individual melanosomes within the   dendrite shown in seq.#10b (centripetal)   66 KB
“Sequence #10c4 thumbnail image”   Sequence #10c4: Movements of individual melanosomes within the   dendrite shown in seq.#10b (centrifugal).   51 KB
“Sequence #10c5 thumbnail image”   Sequence #10c5: Movements of individual melanosomes within the   dendrite shown in seq.#10b (centrifugal).   36 KB
“Sequence #11 thumbnail image”   Sequence #11: Generation of a dilute-like phenotype by   expression of the myosin Va tail domain.   1930 KB
“Sequence #12a thumbnail image”   Sequence #12a: Melanosome dynamics in microtubule-depleted   wild type melanocytes.   307 KB
“Sequence #12b thumbnail image”   Sequence #12b: Melanosome dynamics in mirotubule-depleted   dilute melanocytes.   302 KB

Links

Questions, comments and suggestions about this page may be addressed to John Hammer

 

 


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