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   Canty, John T.; Yildiz, Ahmet (May 2020, Trends in Biochemical Sciences)

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2. Structure and Mechanics of Dynein Motors

   https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-biophys-111020-101511  

   Canty, John T.; Tan, Ruensern; Kusakci, Emre; Fernandes, Jonathan; Yildiz, Ahmet (May 2021, Annual Review of Biophysics)

   Dyneins make up a family of AAA+ motors that move toward the minus end of microtubules. Cytoplasmic dynein is responsible for transporting intracellular cargos in interphase cells and mediating spindle assembly and chromosome positioning during cell division. Other dynein isoforms transport cargos in cilia and power ciliary beating. Dyneins were the least studied of the cytoskeletal motors due to challenges in the reconstitution of active dynein complexes in vitro and the scarcity of high-resolution methods for in-depth structural and biophysical characterization of these motors. These challenges have been recently addressed, and there have been major advances in our understanding of the activation, mechanism, and regulation of dyneins. This review synthesizes the results of structural and biophysical studies for each class of dynein motors. We highlight several outstanding questions about the regulation of bidirectional transport along microtubules and the mechanisms that sustain self-coordinated oscillations within motile cilia. 

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3. BPS2025 - Stepping dynamics of dynein characterized by MINFLUX

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4. Dynein harnesses active fluctuations of microtubules for faster movement

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-019-0757-4  

   Ezber, Yasin; Belyy, Vladislav; Can, Sinan; Yildiz, Ahmet (March 2020, Nature Physics)
5. Dynein‐Powered Cell Locomotion Guides Metastasis of Breast Cancer

   https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202302229  

   Tagay, Yerbol; Kheirabadi, Sina; Ataie, Zaman; Singh, Rakesh_K; Prince, Olivia; Nguyen, Ashley; Zhovmer, Alexander_S; Ma, Xuefei; Sheikhi, Amir; Tsygankov, Denis; et al (September 2023, Advanced Science)

   Abstract The principal cause of death in cancer patients is metastasis, which remains an unresolved problem. Conventionally, metastatic dissemination is linked to actomyosin‐driven cell locomotion. However, the locomotion of cancer cells often does not strictly line up with the measured actomyosin forces. Here, a complementary mechanism of metastatic locomotion powered by dynein‐generated forces is identified. These forces arise within a non‐stretchable microtubule network and drive persistent contact guidance of migrating cancer cells along the biomimetic collagen fibers. It is also shown that the dynein‐powered locomotion becomes indispensable during invasive 3D migration within a tissue‐like luminal network formed by spatially confining granular hydrogel scaffolds (GHS) made up of microscale hydrogel particles (microgels). These results indicate that the complementary motricity mediated by dynein is always necessary and, in certain instances, sufficient for disseminating metastatic breast cancer cells. These findings advance the fundamental understanding of cell locomotion mechanisms and expand the spectrum of clinical targets against metastasis. 

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