Related papers: Loose mechanochemical coupling of molecular motors
Intracellular cargos which are transported by molecular motors move stochastically along cytoskeleton filaments. In particular for bidirectionally transported cargos it is an open question whether the characteristics of their motion can…
We study the energestics of a thermal motor driven by temperature differences, which consists of Brownian particles moving in a sawtooth potential with an external load where the viscous medium is alternately in contact with hot and cold…
We review the properties of biological motor proteins which move along linear filaments that are polar and periodic. The physics of the operation of such motors can be described by simple stochastic models which are coupled to a chemical…
We study the effect of a coupling between two motor domains in highly-processive motor protein complexes. A simple stochastic discrete model, in which the two parts of the protein molecule interact through some energy potential, is…
The mechanics of cells is strongly affected by molecular motors that generate forces in the cellular cytoskeleton. We develop a model for cytoskeletal networks driven out of equilibrium by molecular motors exerting transient contractile…
The rheology of biological cells is not only determined by their cytoskeletal networks, but also by the molecular motors that crosslink and contract them. Recently it has been found that the assemblies of myosin II molecular motors in…
The paper considers a model for the solar cell as a mechanical open-cycle thermodynamic engine where the chemical potential is produced in an isochoric process corresponding to the thermalization of electron-hole pairs. Expansion of the…
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…
Molecular motors fulfill critical functions within all living beings. Understanding their underlying working principles is therefore of great interest. Here we develop a simple model inspired by the two-component biomolecular motor Fo-F1…
We analyze the collective behavior of hydrodynamically coupled molecular motors. We show that the local fluxes induced by motors displacement can induce the experimentally observed bidirectional motion of cargoes and vesicles. By means of a…
Power-law dwell times have been observed for molecular motors in living cells, but the origins of these trapped states are not known. We introduce a minimal model of motors moving on a two-dimensional network of filaments, and simulations…
The biological cell exhibits a fantastic range of behaviors, but ultimately these are governed by a handful of physical and chemical principles. Here we explore simple theory, known for decades and based on the simple thermodynamics of…
Polar polymer activity is a fundamental mechanism behind a large number of cellular dynamical processes. The number and location of the active sites on the polymer backbone play a central role in their dynamics and conformational…
Unlike macroscopic engines, the molecular machinery of living cells is strongly affected by fluctuations. Stochastic Thermodynamics uses Markovian jump processes to model the random transitions between the chemical and configurational…
Cytoskeletal motors known as motor proteins are molecules that drive cellular transport along several parallel cytoskeletal filaments and support many biological processes. Experimental evidences suggest that they interact with the nearest…
While it is commonly observed that the shape dynamics of mammalian cells can undergo large random fluctuations, theoretical models aiming at capturing cell mechanics often focus on the deterministic part of the motion. In this paper, we…
For a single enzyme or molecular motor operating in an aqueous solution of non-equilibrated solute concentrations, a thermodynamic description is developed on the level of an individual trajectory of transitions between states. The concept…
The aim of this paper is to determine lost works in a molecular engine and compare results with macro (classical) heat engines. Firstly, irreversible thermodynamics are reviewed for macro and molecular cycles. Secondly, irreversible…
The appealing feature of molecular electronics is the possibility of exploiting functionality built within a single molecule. This functionality can be employed, for example, for sensing or switching purposes. Thus, ideally, the associated…
The organization of live cells into tissues and their subsequent biological function involves inter-cell mechanical interactions, which are mediated by their elastic environment. To model this interaction, we consider cells as spherical…