Figure 1.

Mechanical model for dynein. (A) A monomeric dynein molecule modeled as a rigid disklike head rigidly connected to 1), the flexible rodlike stalk whose end (MTBD) can attach to the MT and 2), the linker that adopts two distinct positions with respect to the nucleotides bound to the head. (B–D) A schematic representation of the interactions between the two monomers. (B) Interaction between dimerized tails is modeled by a harmonic interaction between the ends of the linkers. The interaction between the two rings is a hard-core repulsion between two cylinders with the additional attractive contributions between (C) the ring centers and (D) the ring normals, which favor the parallel stacking of the two rings. To see this figure in color, go online.