Optical Trapping Assays
Optical trap measurements of eGFP-tagged WT, 13P, 19P, and 14GS constructs were performed with a custom-built optical trapping microscope (Gennerich et al., 2007). Briefly, 0.92 μm diameter latex beads were crosslinked to anti-GFP antibodies and incubated with the GFP-tagged motors. The motor-bead ratio was adjusted so that 30% of the beads displayed movement. Under these conditions, there is >99% probability that bead movements were due to single kinesin molecules (Svoboda and Block, 1994). Spring constants of 0.04–0.06 pN/nm were used for WT to allow a maximal bead-trap separation of 100–150 nm. For the neck mutants, spring constants of 0.025–0.035 pN/nm were used.
Stall force measurements were performed with a fixed position optical trap. Kinesin stepping under constant loads was analyzed by using the force-feedback mode of the optical trap. Velocities were obtained by line fits to the displacement traces of the beads moving under constant load. Measurements in the absence of ATP were performed by adding 20 U/ml apyrase to deplete residual ATP and ADP (which would in any event be