Motion of myosin V molecules on actin

When using these animations in any way, please acknowledge: Matthew L. Walker, Stan A. Burgess, James R. Sellers, Fei Wang, John A. Hammer III, John Trinick & Peter J. Knight. Two-headed Binding of a Processive Myosin to F-actin. Nature, 405, 804-807 (2000).

Lifesize Model Walking on stepping stones is a good analogy of myosin V action, because one can only walk on the stones, in between doesn't work. Similarly, the free myosin V head can only attach again near the actin helical repeat distance, 36 nm, because only here is the actin subunit orientation correct. Photo courtesy Rosalind Trinick.