Related papers: Model for the unidirectional motion of a dynein mo…
The actin and microtubule cytoskeletons are vital structures for cell growth and development across all species. While individual molecular mechanisms underpinning actin and microtubule dynamics have been intensively studied, principles…
Single molecular motor kinesin harnesses thermal and non-thermal fluctuations to transport various cargoes along microtubules, converting chemical energy to directed movements. To describe the non-thermal fluctuations generated by the…
We propose a novel mechanism of cell motility, which relies on the coupling of actin polymerization at the cell membrane to geometric confinement. We consider a polymerizing viscoelastic cytoskeletal gel confined in a narrow channel, and…
The cell cytoskeleton is a striking example of "active" medium driven out-of-equilibrium by ATP hydrolysis. Such activity has been shown recently to have a spectacular impact on the mechanical and rheological properties of the cellular…
Traffic-like collective movements are observed at almost all levels of biological systems. Molecular motor proteins like, for example, kinesin and dynein, which are the vehicles of almost all intra-cellular transport in eukayotic cells,…
Based on symmetry consideration of migration and shape deformations, we formulate phenomenologically the dynamics of cell crawling in two dimensions. Forces are introduced to change the cell shape. The shape deformations induce migration of…
Dynein motors exhibit catch bonding, where the unbinding rate of the motors from microtubule filaments decreases with increasing opposing load. The implications of this catch bond on the transport properties of dynein-driven cargo are yet…
The transport of deformable particles through porous media underlies a wealth of applications ranging from filtration to oil recovery to the transport and spreading of biological agents. Using direct numerical simulations, we analyze the…
Cell motility is fundamental to many biological processes, and cells exhibit a variety of migration patterns. Many motile cell types follow a universal law that connects their speed and persistency, a property that can originate from the…
We investigate the dynamics of an active gel of bundled microtubules that is driven by clusters of kinesin molecular motors. Upon the addition of ATP, the coordinated action of thousands of molecular motors drives the gel to a highly…
Transport across heterogeneous, patchy environments is a ubiquitous phenomenon spanning fields of study including ecological movement, intracellular transport and regions of specialised function in a cell. These regions or patches may be…
Rotational migration is one specific form of collective cell migration when epithelial cells are confined in a spherical geometry, such as in the epithelial acini. This tissue-level rotation motion is crucial for the morphogenesis of…
Many fundamental biological processes are dependent on cellular migration. Although the mechanical mechanisms of single-cell migration are relatively well understood, those underlying migration of multiple cells adhered to each other in a…
The transport of individual entities through interconnected structures is a process of practical relevance both in biology and technology. Examples are given by diffusive dynamics of molecules in porous structures. In soft environments,…
The transport equation of active motion is generalised to consider time-fractional dynamics for describing the anomalous diffusion of self-propelled particles observed in many different systems. In the present study, we consider an…
Translation is one of the main steps in the synthesis of proteins. It consists of ribosomes that translate sequences of nucleotides encoded on mRNA into polypeptide sequences of amino acids. Ribosomes bound to mRNA move unidirectionally,…
Thermophoresis moves molecules along temperature gradients, typically from hot to cold. We superpose fluid flow with thermophoretic molecule flow under well defined microfluidic conditions, imaged by fluorescence microscopy. DNA is trapped…
Molecular dynamics simulation is a prominent way of analyzing the dynamic properties of a system. The molecular dynamics simulation of diffusion, an important transport property, of dilute solution of cysteine in SPCE water at five…
The hormone auxin is actively transported throughout plants via protein machineries including the dedicated transporter known as PIN. The associated transport is ordered with nearby cells driving auxin flux in similar directions. Here we…
An accurate and efficient characterization of the polyelectrolyte properties for cytoskeleton filaments are key to the molecular understanding of electrical signal propagation, bundle and network formation, as well as other relevant…