MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF A CYTOPLASMIC DYNEIN FROM DICTYOSTELIUM

Cytoplasmic dynein is a high molecular weight, microtubule-based mecha nochemical ATPase that is believed to provide motive force for a numbe r of intracellular motilities, including transport of membrane-bound o rganelles. Cytoplasmic dynein also localizes to the mitotic spindles o f some organisms and to the kinetochore regions of some condensed chro mosomes, where it may play an active role in spindle assembly, spindle position, and/or chromosome movement during cell division. Despite ac tive research efforts from a number of laboratories, little detail is yet available about dynein-based cellular activities. This paper descr ibes our efforts to characterize cytoplasmic dynein from Dictyostelium and to use this protist as a molecular genetic factory to probe struc ture-function relationships of this molecule.