Model of microtubule-microtubule sliding driven by kinesin-1. Kinesin-1 slides antiparallel microtubules apart with their minus-ends leading (left panel). When kinesin-1 binds to parallel microtubules (right panel), forces applied by the two motors to the two microtubules are counteracted resulting in no net movement; instead, kinesin-1 crosslinks these microtubules. Large green arrows indicate direction of microtubule sliding; small orange arrows indicate the direction of kinesin-1 movement relative to microtubules.

Sliding Microtubules Push against the Neurite Tips and induce neurite outgrowth. Young neurons (<3 hr after plating) from embryos expressing GFP-microtubules and cell membrane was stained by Deep Red dye. Scale bar represent 5 μm.

Pav-KLP (Kinesin-6) depletion Stimulates Microtubule Sliding in Drosophila S2 Cells, Time-lapse images of photoconverted microtubules in control (left panel) or Pav-KLP RNAi (right panel) of S2 cells expressing tdEOS-αtubulin.

Sensory dendritic arborisation neurons in Drosophila third instar larvae. Depleting levels of the motor protein Pav-KLP or the kinase Trc increases microtubule sliding. This leads to increased neurite outgrowth and an overdeveloped dendritic arbor seen here