The road less traveled: Emerging principles of kinesin motor utilization

Proteins of the kinesin superfamily utilize a conserved catalytic motor dom ain to generate movements in a wide variety of cellular processes. In this review, we discuss the rapid expansion in our understanding of how eukaryot ic cells take advantage of these proteins to generate force and movement in diverse functional contexts. We summarize several recent examples revealin g that the simplest view of a kinesin motor protein binding to and transloc ating a cargo along a microtubule track is inadequate. In fact, this paradi gm captures only a small subset of the many ways in which cells harness for ce production to the generation of intracellular movements and functions. W e also highlight several situations where the catalytic kinesin motor domai n may not be used to generate movement, but instead may be used in other bi ochemical and functional contexts. Finally, we review some recent ideas abo ut kinesin motor regulation, redundancy, and cargo attachment strategies.