Intracellular transport, changes in cell shape, cell motility and animal locomotion depend on the microtubules, microfilaments, motor proteins and their accessory proteins. You should be able to explain how each of these four movement functionsabove are achieved by microtubules and microfilaments. Make sure you understand the role of the different motor proteins involved that are specific to microtubule movement vs. microfilament movement. Microtubules and microfilaments also have important roles in the cytoskeleton.

Intracellular transport is taking place with the help of microfilaments and microtubules. The plays the role of a highway for motor proteins such as dynein, kinesin, and myosin, which acts as the car of this highway that helps in transport.

Motor proteins help in changing the ATP to ADP by binding to it and attach or detach to the other parts of the cytoskeleton for transporting the vesicles as these proteins move.

Kinesin and dynein both are microtubule motor proteins. Kinesin transports full vesicles away from the nucleus, Dynein transports empty vesicles back towards the nucleus and myosin is a microfilament motor protein that transports both vesicles along microfilament.