WITHDRAWN: Dual-color MINFLUX: Kinesin-1 takes Chasse-Inchworm steps
The authors have withdrawn their manuscript because improved two-color MINFLUX experiments disproved their initial claim of a "Chasse-Inchworm" stepping mechanism for kinesin-1, revealing instead that the motor follows the widely accepted hand-over-hand mechanism with 8-nanometer steps.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of a preprint that has not been peer-reviewed. It is not medical advice. Do not make health decisions based on this content. Read full disclaimer
Imagine a tiny, microscopic machine called Kinesin-1. Think of it as a molecular delivery truck that walks along a track inside your cells, carrying important cargo. This truck has two "feet" (called motor domains) that take turns stepping forward.
For a long time, scientists believed these feet moved in a specific way called a "hand-over-hand" motion. It's like a human walking: your left foot steps forward, then your right foot swings past it to step even further ahead. The distance between the feet in this dance is always a steady, predictable step.
However, the authors of this paper initially thought they had discovered something totally new and exciting. They claimed the truck didn't walk normally; instead, it did a strange, jerky dance they called the "Chasse-Inchworm" step. In their original experiment, they used a super-precise camera (a two-color MINFLUX setup) to watch the truck's feet. They saw the feet sometimes touching (0 nanometers apart) and sometimes stretching far apart (16 nanometers). They thought this meant the truck was shuffling its feet in a weird, inchworm-like fashion.
But here is the twist: The authors realized their camera wasn't quite sharp enough. It was like trying to measure a tiny gap with a ruler that was slightly bent or blurry.
So, they built a brand new, upgraded camera with much better focus and precision. When they pointed this new, sharper lens at the same truck, the story changed completely. The "strange" 16-nanometer gap disappeared. Instead, the new camera showed the feet were only ever 0 or 8 nanometers apart.
This new, clearer view confirmed that the truck was actually doing the standard "hand-over-hand" walk all along. The original "Chasse-Inchworm" idea was just a mistake caused by the blurry camera.
Because the new evidence proves their first conclusion was wrong, the authors have decided to pull the paper back (withdraw it). They are essentially saying, "We made a mistake in our first report, the truck doesn't walk like an inchworm, and please don't use our old, incorrect findings as a reference for future science."
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