Dwiteeya Chaudhury

Highlights • Beads enclosed in lipid membrane containing phosphatidic acid as “cargo” for motor proteins • Cargoes move robustly on microtubules driven by dynein or kinesin-1 motors in vitro • Larger cargoes reverse more, suggesting how traffic jams may be avoided inside cells • “Locking” or “non-locking” motor inhibitors to resolve a paradox in intracellular transport Summary Motor proteins transport diverse membrane-bound vesicles along microtubules inside cells.

Abstract A variety of membrane-bound vesicles are transported by the kinesin and dynein motor proteins respectively towards plus and minus ends of microtubules inside cells. How specific lipids, particularly rare lipids, bind and activate motors on the vesicle membrane and the biological consequences thereof are poorly understood. Here we prepare spherical supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) consisting of a latex bead enclosed within a membrane that contains phosphatidic acid (PA).