Modeling molecular motors as folding-unfolding cycles

Modelling Molecular Motors as Folding-Unfolding Cycles

We propose a model for motor proteins based on a hierarchical Hamiltonian that we have previously introduced to describe protein folding. The proposed motor model has high efficiency and is consistent with a linear load-velocity response. The main improvement with respect to previous models is that this description suggests a connection between folding and function of allosteric proteins. An im...

Modeling Spatial Distribution of Intracellular Organelles by Molecular Motors

RMP Colloquia Modeling molecular motors

The authors present general considerations and simple models for the operation of isothermal motors at small scales, in asymmetric environments. Their work is inspired by recent observations on the behavior of molecular motors in the biological realm, where chemical energy is converted into mechanical energy. A generic Onsager-like description of the linear (close to equilibrium) regime is pres...

Kinesin motors as molecular machines.

Molecular motor proteins, fueled by energy from ATP hydrolysis, move along actin filaments or microtubules, performing work in the cell. The kinesin microtubule motors transport vesicles or organelles, assemble bipolar spindles or depolymerize microtubules, functioning in basic cellular processes. The mechanism by which motor proteins convert energy from ATP hydrolysis into work is likely to di...

Molecular Dynamics Simulations to Study Protein Folding and Unfolding

Proteins in solution fold in time scales ranging from microseconds to seconds. A computational approach to folding that should work, in principle, is to use an atom-based model for the potential energy (force field) and to solve the timediscretized Newton equation of motion (molecular dynamics, MD [1]) from a denatured conformer to the native state in the presence of the appropriate solvent. Wi...