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Myosin Light Chain

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All organisms, from humans to simple bacteria, have a necessity to move in order to adapt to changes in their external or internal environment, navigate towards food, and avoid dangers. Even cells are teeming with motion as they reorganize organelles, nucleic acids, and proteins. At the molecular level, two types of elements assist in the control movements of the cell and the organism as a whole: molecular-motor proteins and intricate complexes of protein filaments that make up the cytoskeleton of the cell (Vale and Milligan, 2000). Myosin is a family of motor protein that act as enzymes in the hydrolysis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to form adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and inorganic phosphate (Pi), The energy released by this reaction to drive the movement of molecules and contraction of muscle fibers (Grigorenko et al., 2007). A remarkable part of evolution is that the same mechanisms that control of contraction of muscles by myosin, are also used to propel …show more content…

In the N-terminal region, the heavy chain forms a motor domain that is globular in structure. The motor domain has an α-helix that extends from the C-terminus, which becomes part of the light chain binding domain. At this binding domain, the essential and regulatory light chains wrap around the α-helix to thicken and support its structure. The motor domains can be divided into three domains: the actin-binding site, the nucleotide binding site (P-loop NTPase domain core as an ATP catalytic site), and the converter domain. A converter domain is present at the junction between the ATP catalytic site of the motor domain and the light chain binding domain. The converter domain and the light chain binding domain compose the “lever arm”, which has a significant role in producing the mechanical force needed to generate movement during muscle

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