Related papers: Engines at molecular scales
Molecular motors convert chemical energy into mechanical work while operating in an environment dominated by Brownian motion. The aim of this paper is to explore the flow of energy between the molecular motors and its surroundings, in…
The origins of the large differences observed to the rates with which the diverse particles are conveyed along axonal microtubules are still a matter of debate in the literature. There is evidence that certain neurodegenerative diseases may…
We show that the correlated stochastic fluctuation of the friction coefficient can give rise to long-range directional motion of a particle undergoing Brownian random walk in a constant periodic energy potential landscape. The occurrence of…
Molecular motors transduce chemical energy obtained from hydrolizing ATP into mechanical work exerted against an external force. We calculate their efficiency at maximum power output for two simple generic models and show that the…
Protein molecules in cells are synthesized by macromolecular machines called ribosomes. According to recent experimental data, we reduce the complexity of the ribosome and propose a model to express its activity in six main states. Using…
We consider mechanisms of directed transport in a ratchet model comprising, besides the external freedom where transport occurs, a chemical freedom that replaces the familiar external driving by an autonomous dynamics providing energy…
We study a Brownian motor, based on cold atoms in optical lattices, where atomic motion can be induced in a controlled manner in an arbitrary direction, by rectification of isotropic random fluctuations. In contrast with ratchet mechanisms,…
Microorganisms such as bacteria are active matters which consume chemical energy and generate their unique run-and-tumble motion. A swarm of such microorganisms provide a nonequilibrium active environment whose noise characteristics are…
Molecular signalling in living cells occurs at low copy numbers and is thereby inherently limited by the noise imposed by thermal diffusion. The precision at which biochemical receptors can count signalling molecules is intimately related…
Synthesis of protein molecules in a cell are carried out by ribosomes. A ribosome can be regarded as a molecular motor which utilizes the input chemical energy to move on a messenger RNA (mRNA) track that also serves as a template for the…
We investigate the model of "reversible ratchet" with interacting particles, introduced by us earlier [Europhys. Lett. 84, 50009 (2008)]. We further clarify the effect of efficiency enhancement due to interaction and show that it is of…
Inside cells, various cargos are transported by teams of molecular motors. Intriguingly, the motors involved generally have opposite pulling directions, and the resulting cargo dynamics is a biased stochastic motion. It is an open question…
Mechanical signaling plays a key role in biological processes like embryo development and cancer growth. One prominent way to probe mechanical properties of tissues is to study their response to externally applied forces. Using a…
Molecules with complex internal structure in time-dependent periodic potentials are studied by using short Rubinstein-Duke model polymers as an example. We extend our earlier work on transport in stochastically varying potentials to cover…
We analyze the rectified motion of a Brownian particle in a confined environment. We show the emergence of strong cooperativity between the inherent rectification of the ratchet mechanism and the entropic bias of the fluctuations caused by…
Cells are complex structures which require considerable amounts of organization via transport of large intracellular cargo. While passive diffusion is often sufficiently fast for the transport of smaller cargo, active transport is necessary…
In this work we demonstrate single microparticle transport enabled by noise in a one dimensional optical lattice with periodic symmetric potentials and a small constant external force. The one dimensional lattice is implemented by six…
Transport of a Brownian particle moving in a periodic potential is investigated in the presence of symmetric unbiased external force. The viscous medium is alternately in contact with the two heat reservoirs. We present the analytical…
A molecular rotor mechanism is proposed to explain weak magnetic field effects in biology. Despite being nanoscale (1 nm), this rotor exhibits quantum superposition and interference. Analytical modeling shows its quantum dynamics are highly…
Here we generalize our previous model of molecular motors trafficking subdiffusing cargos in viscoelastic cytosol by (i) including mechanochemical coupling between cyclic conformational fluctuations of the motor protein driven by the…