Related papers: Motor driven microtubule shape fluctuations - forc…
Biological functions in each animal cell depend on coordinated operations of a wide variety of molecular motors. Some of the these motors transport cargo to their respective destinations whereas some others are mobile workshops which…
Molecular motor proteins serve as an essential component of intracellular transport by generating forces to haul cargoes along cytoskeletal filaments. Two species of motors that are directed oppositely (e.g. kinesin, dynein) can be attached…
A flexible membrane deforming its shape in time can self-propel in a viscous fluid. Alternatively, if the membrane is anchored, its deformation will lead to fluid transport. Past work in this area focused on situations where the deformation…
The cytoskeleton relies on diverse populations of motors, filaments, and binding proteins acting in concert to enable non-equilibrium processes ranging from mitosis to chemotaxis. Its versatile reconfigurability, programmed by interactions…
Biological transport is supported by collective dynamics of enzymatic molecules that are called motor proteins or molecular motors. Experiments suggest that motor proteins interact locally via short-range potentials. We investigate the…
Recent experiments in various cell types have shown that two-dimensional tissues often display local nematic order, with evidence of extensile stresses manifest in the dynamics of topological defects. Using a mesoscopic model where tissue…
The initiation of directional cell motion requires symmetry breaking that can happen both with or without external stimuli. During cell crawling, forces generated by the cytoskeleton and their transmission through mechanosensitive adhesions…
In this article we give our perspective on the successes and promise of various molecular and coarse-grained simulation approaches to probing the effect of mechanical forces in the actin cytoskeleton.
Topological boundary modes, a hallmark of quantum topological phases, remarkably occur in classical mechanical systems through an interesting correspondence with the quantum case. Here, we explore the Maxwell lattice frustrated Mott…
In nature interactions between biopolymers and motor proteins give rise to biologically essential emergent behaviours. Besides cytoskeleton mechanics, active nematics arise from such interactions. Here we present a study on 3D active…
Motivated by experiments on single-headed kinesin KIF1A, we develop a model of intra-cellular transport by interacting molecular motors. It captures explicitly not only the effects of ATP hydrolysis, but also the ratchet mechanism which…
Eukaryotic cells and intracellular pathogens such as bacteria or viruses utilize the actin polymerization machinery to propel themselves forward. Thereby, the onset of motion and choice of direction may be the result of a spontaneous…
We focus on potential mechanisms for `energy-loss-free' transport along the cell microtubules, which could be considered as realizations of Fr\"ohlich's ideas on the role of solitons for superconductivity and/or biological matter. In…
The fluctuation theorem is a representative theorem in non-equilibrium statistical physics actively studied in the 1990's. Relating to entropy production in non-equilibrium states, the theorem has been used to estimate the driving power of…
Molecular motors are macromolecular complexes which use some form of input energy to perform mechanical work. The filamentary tracks, on which these motors move, are made of either proteins (e.g., microtubules) or nucleic acids (DNA or…
This study employs three-dimensional particle-resolved simulations of planar shocks passing through a suspension of stationary solid particles to study wake-induced gas-phase velocity fluctuations, termed pseudo-turbulence. Strong coupling…
We use a simple model to study the long time fluctuations induced by random pinning on the motion of driven non--interacting vortices. We find that vortex motion seen from the co--moving frame is diffusive and anisotropic, with velocity…
Despite significant fluctuation under thermal noise, biological machines in cells perform their tasks with exquisite precision. Using molecular simulation of a coarse-grained model and theoretical arguments we envisaged how kinesin, a…
We investigate the dependence of the displacements of a molecular motor embedded inside a glassy material on its folding characteristic time. We observe two different time regimes. For slow foldings (regime I) the diffusion evolves very…
In the present paper we deal with nonlinear dynamics of microtubules (MTs). The structure and role of MTs in cells are explained. One model explaining MT dynamics is explained. Solutions of the crucial nonlinear differential equation depend…