Related papers: Motor-driven microtubule diffusion in a photobleac…
Active dynamic processes of cells are largely driven by the cytoskeleton, a complex and adaptable semiflexible polymer network, motorized by mechanoenzymes. Small dimensions, confined geome- tries and hierarchical structures make it…
This paper studies the dynamics of a network of diffusively-coupled bistable systems. Under mild conditions and without requiring smoothness of the vector field, we analyze the network dynamics and show that the solutions converge globally…
Diffusion of transported particles in the intracellular medium is described by means of a generalized diffusion equation containing forces due to the cytoskeleton network and to the protein motors. We find that the enhanced diffusion…
We investigated three models of Brownian motors which convert rotational diffusion into directed translational motion by switching on and off a potential. In the first model a spatially asymmetric potential generates directed translational…
The transport of motile entities across modulated energy landscapes plays an important role in a range of phenomena in biology, colloidal science and solid-state physics. Here, an easily implementable strategy that allows for the collective…
Many cellular processes require a polarization axis which generally initially emerges as an inhomogeneous distribution of molecular markers in the cell. We present a simple analytical model of a general mechanism of cell polarization taking…
Tracking experiments in dense biological tissues reveal a diversity of sources f or local energy injection at the cell scale. The effect of cell motility has been largely studied, but much less is known abo ut the effect of the observed…
Self-organization of kinesin-driven, microtubule-based 3D active fluids relies on the collective dynamics of single microtubules. However, the connection between macroscopic fluid flows and microscopic motion of microtubules remains…
We introduce a mathematical model for the mechanical behaviour of the eukaryotic cell cytoskeleton. This discrete model involves a regular array of pre-stressed protein filaments that exhibit resistance to enthalpic stretching, joined at…
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…
The transfer of mechanical signals through cells is a complex phenomenon. To uncover a new mechanotransduction pathway, we study the frequency-dependent transport of mechanical stimuli by single microtubules and small networks in a…
We study molecular dynamics within populations of diffusively coupled cells under the assumption of fast diffusive exchange. As a technical tool, we propose conditions on boundedness and ultimate boundedness for systems with a singular…
Cell sorting, whereby a heterogeneous cell mixture segregates and forms distinct homogeneous tissues, is one of the main collective cell behaviors at work during development. Although differences in interfacial energies are recognized to be…
We consider in this paper a solvable model for the motion of molecular motors. Based on the averaging principle, we reduce the problem to a diffusion process on a graph. We then calculate the effective speed of transportation of these…
Bacterial cellulose biofilms are complex networks of strong interwoven nanofibers that control transport and protect bacterial colonies in the film. Design of diverse applications of bacterial cellulose films also relies on understanding…
Filament based intracellular transport involves the collective action of molecular motor proteins. Experimental evidences suggest that microtubule (MT) filament bound motor proteins such as {\it kinesins} weakly interact among themselves…
The microtubule cytoskeleton is responsible for sustained, long-range intracellular transport of mRNAs, proteins, and organelles in neurons. Neuronal microtubules must be stable enough to ensure reliable transport, but they also undergo…
In eukaryotic cells, mitochondria form networks that range from highly fused interconnected structures to fragmented populations of individual organelles that undergo transient interactions. These structures can be described as temporal…
The presence of a dispersed phase can significantly modulate the drag in turbulent systems. We derived a conserved quantity that characterizes the radial transport of azimuthal momentum in the fluid-fluid two-phase Taylor-Couette…
The transport of particles in cells is influenced by the properties of intracellular networks they traverse while searching for localized target regions or reaction partners. Moreover, given the rapid turnover in many intracellular…