Interaction of kinesin motors, microtubules, and MAPs

Kinesins are a family of microtubule-dependent motor proteins that carry cargoes such as vesicles, organelles, or protein complexes along microtubules. Here we summarize structural studies of the "conventional" motor protein kinesin-1 and its interactions with microtubules, as determined by X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy. In particular, we consider the docking between the kinesin motor domain and tubulin subunits and summarize the evidence that kinesin binds mainly to beta tubulin with the switch-2 helix close to the intradimer interface between alpha and beta tubulin.