Measuring microtubule binding kinetics of membrane- bound kinesin motors using supported lipid bilayers

Membrane-bound cargos in cells are generally transported by multiple kinesin motors. Quantifying the bimolecular on-rate of motors for their microtubule track is important for understanding of multi-motor transport but is complicated by diffusion of the motors in the plane of the lipid bilayer. Here, we describe a method to measure the kinesin on-rate that uses a modified microtubule gliding assay performed on a supported lipid bilayer and detects motor binding by a local increase in fluorescence. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Jiang et al. (2019).

Automated summary

The study presents a method to measure the on-rate of motors by using a modified microtubule gliding assay on a supported lipid bilayer, detecting motor binding through an increase in fluorescence.