Traffic by multiple species of molecular motors.

bi o - ph ] 2 5 N ov 2 00 9 Traffic by multiple species of molecular motors

We study the traffic of two types of molecular motors using the two-species asymmetric simple exclusion process (ASEP) with periodic boundary conditions and with attachment and detachment of particles. We determine characteristic properties such as motor densities and currents by simulations and analytical calculations. For motors with different unbinding probabilities, mean field theory gives ...

Traffic of Molecular Motors

Molecular motors perform active movements along cytoskeletal filaments and drive the traffic of organelles and other cargo particles in cells. In contrast to the macroscopic traffic of cars, however, the traffic of molecular motors is characterized by a finite walking distance (or run length) after which a motor unbinds from the filament along which it moves. Unbound motors perform Brownian mot...

Cooperative behavior of molecular motors: Cargo transport and traffic phenomena

All eukaryotic cells including those of our own body contain complex transport systems based on molecular motors which walk along cytoskeletal filaments. These motors are rather small and make discrete mechanical steps with a step size of the order of 10 nm but are able to pull cargo particles over much larger distances, from micrometers up to meters. In vivo, the intracellular cargos include l...

Modeling Spatial Distribution of Intracellular Organelles by Molecular Motors

Properties of tug-of-war model for cargo transport by molecular motors.

Molecular motors are essential components for the biophysical functions of the cell. Current quantitative understanding of how multiple motors move along a single track is not complete, even though models and theories for a single motor mechanochemistry abound. Recently, Müller et al. have developed a tug-of-war model to describe the bidirectional movement of the cargo [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U...