Related papers: Theoretical Analysis of Dynamic Processes for Inte…
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…
Cellular cargo can be bound to cytoskeletal filaments by one or multiple active or passive molecular motors. Recent experiments have shown that the presence of auxiliary, nondriving motors, results in an enhanced processivity of the cargo,…
Many biological and artificial transport channels function without direct input of metabolic energy during a transport event and without structural rearrangements involving transitions from a 'closed' to an 'open' state. Nevertheless, such…
The diffusion of a molecular motor in the presence of a constant external force is considered on the basis of a simple theoretical model. The motor is represented by a Brownian particle moving in a series of parabolic potentials placed…
Reconstituted filamentous actin networks with myosin motor proteins form active gels, in which motor proteins generate forces that drive the network far from equilibrium. This motor activity can also strongly affect the network elasticity;…
In eukaryotic cells, many motor proteins can move simultaneously on a single microtubule track. This leads to interesting collective phenomena like jamming. Recently we reported ({\it Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 95}, 118101 (2005)}) a lattice-gas…
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…
Single kinesin molecular motors can processively move along a microtubule (MT) a few micrometers on average before dissociating. However, cellular length scales over which transport occurs are several hundred microns and more. Why seemingly…
Many cellular processes rely on the cell's ability to transport material to and from the nucleus. Networks consisting of many microtubules and actin filaments are key to this transport. Recently, the inhibition of intracellular transport…
We discuss effects of the stepping kinetics of molecular motors on their traffic behavior on crowded filaments using a simple two-state chemomechanical cycle. While the general traffic behavior is quite robust with respect to the detailed…
Movements of molecular motors on cytoskeletal filaments are described by directed walks on a line. Detachment from this line is allowed to occur with a small probability. Motion in the surrounding fluid is described by symmetric random…
We investigate the simple one-dimensional driven model, the totally asymmetric exclusion process, coupled to mutually interactive Langmuir kinetics. This model is motivated by recent studies on clustering of motor proteins on microtubules.…
The ability of many living systems to actively self-propel underlies critical biomedical, environmental, and industrial processes. While such active transport is well-studied in uniform settings, environmental complexities such as geometric…
We consider the collective motion of finite-sized, overdamped Brownian particles (e.g., motor proteins) in a periodic potential. Simulations of our model have revealed a number of novel cooperative transport phenomena, including (i) the…
Motor-proteins are responsible for transport inside cells. Harnessing their activity is key towards developing new nano-technologies, or functional biomaterials. Cytoskeleton-like networks, recently tailored in vitro, result from the…
The purpose of this work is to use active particles to study the effect of facilitation on supercooled liquids. To this end we investigate the behavior of a model supercooled liquid doped with intermittently active and intermittently slowed…
We propose a model for motor proteins based on a hierarchical Hamiltonian that we have previously introduced to describe protein folding. The proposed motor model has high efficiency and is consistent with a linear load-velocity response.…
Motor proteins that specifically interact with the ends of cytoskeletal filaments can induce filament depolymerization. A phenomenological description of this process is presented. We show that under certain conditions motors dynamically…
We study microscopic engines that use a single active particle as their "working medium". Part of the energy required to drive the directed motion of the particle can be recovered as work, even at constant temperature. A wide class of…
While molecular machines play an increasingly significant role in nanoscience research and applications, there remains a shortage of investigations and understanding of the molecular gear (cogwheel), which is an indispensable and…