Lu, Q., Ye, F., Wei, Z., Wen, Z., & Zhang, M. (2012). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(43), 17388-17393.

Processive movements of unconventional myosins on actin filaments generally require motor dimerization. A commonly accepted myosin dimerization mechanism is via formation of a parallel coiled-coil dimer by a stretch of amino acid residues immediately carboxyl-terminal to the motor’s lever-arm domain. Here, we discover that the predicted coiled-coil region of myosin X forms a highly stable, antiparallel coiled-coil dimer (anti-CC). Disruption of the anti-CC either by single-point mutations or by replacement of the anti-CC with a parallel coiled coil with a similar length compromised the filopodial induction activity of myosin X. We further show that the anti-CC and the single α-helical domain of myosin X are connected by a semirigid helical linker. The anti-CC–mediated dimerization may enable myosin X to walk on both single and bundled actin filaments.

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