This paper discusses translocation features of the 20S proteasome in order to explain typical proteasome length distributions. We assume that the protein transport depends significantly on the fragment length with some optimal length which is transported most efficiently. By means of a simple one-channel model, we show that this hypothesis can explain both the one- and the three-peak length dis...

The biological cell is equipped with a variety of molecular machines that perform complex mechanical tasks such as cell division or intracellular transport. One can envision employing these biological motors in artificial environments. We review the progress that has been made in using motor proteins for powering or manipulating nanoscale components. In particular, kinesin and myosin biomotors ...

We used quantitative phase imaging to measure the dispersion relation, i.e. decay rate vs. spatial mode, associated with mass transport in live cells. This approach applies equally well to both discrete and continuous mass distributions without the need for particle tracking. From the quadratic experimental curve specific to diffusion, we extracted the diffusion coefficient as the only fitting ...

INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 347 IN VITRO SYSTEMS FOR STUDYING MICROTUBULE-BASED ORGANELLE TRANSPORT .............. 349 Axonal Transport ..................................................................................................... 349 Organdie Transport in Nonneuronal Cells ......................

Viruses and other cellular cargo that lack locomotion must rely on diffusion and cellular transport systems to navigate through a biological cell. Indeed, advances in single particle tracking have revealed that viral motion alternates between (a) diffusion in the cytoplasm and (b) active transport along microtubules. This intermittency makes quantitative analysis of trajectories difficult. Ther...

We describe a dissipation principle/variational principle which may be useful in modeling motion in small viscous systems and provide brief illustrations to brownian motor or molecular rachet situations which are found in intracellular transport.

We describe a dissipation principle/variational principle which may be useful in modeling motion in small viscous systems and provide brief illustrations to brownian motor or molecular rachet situations which are found in intracellular transport. Monge-Kantorovich mass transport and Wasserstein metric play an interesting role in these developments. Some properties of the system that ensure the ...

Bidirectional transport of intracellular cargo along microtubule tracks is the subject of intense debate in the motility field. In the present review, we provide an overview of the models describing the possible mechanisms driving intracellular saltatory transport, taking into account current experimental results that may at first seem contradictory. We examine the phenomenon of saltatory motio...