Related papers: Some mathematical models for flagellar activation …
Living creatures exhibit a remarkable diversity of locomotion mechanisms, evolving structures specialised for interacting with their environment. In the vast majority of cases, locomotor behaviours such as flying, crawling, and running, are…
We consider the dynamics of a rigid filament in a motor protein assay under external loading. The motor proteins are modeled as active harmonic linkers with tail ends immobilized on a substrate. Their heads attach to the filament…
Cells accomplish diverse functions using the same molecular building blocks, from setting up cytoplasmic flows to generating mechanical forces. In particular, transitions between these non-equilibrium states are triggered by regulating the…
A quantitative description of the flagellar dynamics in the procyclic T. brucei is presented in terms of stationary oscillations and traveling waves. By using digital video microscopy to quantify the kinematics of trypanosome flagellar…
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…
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…
We show that the flagellar beat of bull spermatozoa and Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii can be modelled by a minimal, geometrically nonlinear reaction-diffusion system. Model solutions are spatio-temporally animated patterns describing flagellar…
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.…
Using a microscopic model of interacting polar biofilaments and motor proteins, we characterize the phase diagram of both homogeneous and inhomogeneous states in terms of experimental parameters. The polarity of motor clusters is key in…
Routinely navigating through an ever-changing and unsteady environment, and utilizing chemical energy, molecular motors transport the cell's crucial components, such as neurotransmitters and organelles. They generate force and pull cargo,…
The so-called Filament Based Lamellipodium Model is a complex modeling framework for a very heterogeneous chemo-mechanical system of cell biology. It contains a model for Coulomb repulsion between filaments, whose effect on the stability of…
The Filament Based Lamellipodium Model (FBLM) is a two-phase two-dimensional continuum model, describing the dynamcis of two interacting families of locally parallel actin filaments (C.Schmeiser and D.Oelz, How do cells move? Mathematical…
We consider random walks on quasi one dimensional lattices, as introduced in \cite{FS}. This mathematical setting covers a large class of discrete kinetic models for non-cooperative molecular motors on periodic tracks. We derive general…
Propelling microorganisms through fluids and moving fluids along cellular surfaces are essential biological functions accomplished by long, thin structures called motile cilia and flagella, whose regular, oscillatory beating breaks the…
Long-distance bidirectional transport of organelles depends on the motor proteins kinesin and dynein. Using quantitative data obtained from a fungal model system, we previously developed ASEP-models of bidirectional motion of motors along…
Motility initiation in crawling cells requires transformation of a symmetric state into a polarized state. In contrast, motility arrest is associated with re-symmetrization of the internal configuration of a cell. Experiments on keratocytes…
Several cellular activities, such as directed cell migration, are coordinated by an intricate network of biochemical reactions which lead to a polarised state of the cell, in which cellular symmetry is broken, causing the cell to have a…
Beating flagella exhibit a variety of synchronization modes. This synchrony has long been attributed to hydrodynamic coupling between the flagella. However, recent work with flagellated algae indicates that a mechanism internal to the cell,…
With the help of a two-dimensional model we study rolling lubrication by circular (2D fullerenes) molecules for a wide range of parameters. The conditions under which microscopic rolling friction may be effective are identified and related…
The origin of biological motion can be traced back to the function of molecular motor proteins. Cytoplasmic dynein and kinesin transport organelles within our cells moving along a polymeric filament, the microtubule. The motion of the…