Figure 1.

Diagrammatic representation of ZW10-containing complexes. (A) ZW10 exists as a coherent 20S complex, which contains Zwilch and Rod as components. ZW10 itself interacts with the dynamitin subunit of the dynactin complex, which in turn interacts through its p150^Glued subunit with the base of the dynein molecule. ZW10 is shown anchored to the kinetochore through Zwint-1. Recent evidence indicates that ZW10 also participates in recruiting dynactin and dynein to membranous and cell cortical structures, though how ZW10 is anchored in these cases is unknown. (Other dynein/dynactin interactors involved in its association with membranes are not been indicated in this scheme for simplicity.) (B) An apparently independent complex has been identified associated with the t-SNARE syntaxin-18. This complex can be dissociated (dotted line) by NSF and α-SNAP to yield α subcomplex containing p31, ZW10 and RINT-1. Whether ZW10 participates in SNARE function, links dynein to membranes, or links SNAREs to dynein remains to be explored more fully. Although a ZW10 homologue has not been identified in yeast, potential orthologues of syntaxin-18 and others of its interactors are known in this organism (noted by *): syntaxin-18 = Ufe1p; p31 = Use1p; and RINT-1 = Tip20p (See text for details).