Related papers: Kinesin as an electrostatic machine
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…
We investigate a kinetic heat engine model constituted by particles enclosed in a box where one side acts as a thermostat and the opposite side is a piston exerting a given pressure. Pressure and temperature are varied in a cyclical…
A simple model for the reaction-driven propulsion of a small device is proposed as a model for (part of) a molecular machine in aqueous media. Motion of the device is driven by an asymmetric distribution of reaction products. The propulsive…
Motor-driven cytoskeletal remodeling in cellular systems can often be accompanied by a diffusive-like effect at local scales, but distinguishing the contributions of the ordering process, such as active contraction of a network, from this…
We present experimental and theoretical studies of the dynamics of molecular motors in microtubule arrays and asters. By solving a convection-diffusion equation we find that the density profile of motors in a two-dimensional aster is…
In recent literature there has been a lot of interest in the phenomena of noise induced transport in the absence of an average bias occurring in spatially periodic systems far from equilibrium. One of the main motivations in this area is to…
The peristaltic motion of the stomach walls combines with the secretion of enzymes to initiate the process that breaks down food. Computational modelling of this phenomenon can help reveal the details that would be hard to capture via…
Kinetic of a reversible structural transition between insulating (2H) and metallic (1T') phases in a monolayer MoTe2 due to an electrostatic doping is studied using first-principle calculations. The driving force for the structural…
Biomolecular machines consume free energy to break symmetry and make directed progress. Nonequilibrium ATP concentrations are the typical free energy source, with one cycle of a molecular machine consuming a certain number of ATP, providing…
We perform a theoretical study of the dynamics of the electric field excitations in a microtubule by taking into consideration the realistic cylindrical geometry, dipole-dipole interactions of the tubulin-based protein heterodimers, the…
The composite cytoskeleton, comprising interacting networks of semiflexible actin and rigid microtubules, actively generates forces and restructures using motor proteins such as myosins to enable key mechanical processes including cell…
ATP-driven proton pumps, which are critical to the operation of a cell, maintain cytosolic and organellar pH levels within a narrow functional range. These pumps employ two very different mechanisms: an elaborate rotary mechanism used by…
Among the multiple steps constituting the kinesin's mechanochemical cycle, one of the most interesting events is observed when kinesins move an 8-nm step from one microtubule (MT)-binding site to another. The stepping motion that occurs…
Microtubules and motor proteins self organize into biologically important assemblies including the mitotic spindle and the centrosomal microtubule array. Outside of cells, microtubule-motor mixtures can form novel active liquid-crystalline…
The cytoskeleton is a model active matter system that controls diverse cellular processes from division to motility. While both active actomyosin dynamics and actin-microtubule interactions are key to the cytoskeleton's versatility and…
Myosin-V is a highly processive dimeric protein that walks with 36nm steps along actin tracks, powered by coordinated ATP hydrolysis reactions in the two myosin heads. No previous theoretical models of the myosin-V walk reproduce all the…
Contractile forces are essential for many developmental processes involving cell shape change and tissue deformation. Recent experiments on reconstituted actomyosin networks, the major component of the contractile machinery, have shown that…
The movement of single kinesin molecules was observed while applying noisy external forces that mimic intracellular active fluctuations. We found kinesin accelerates under noise, especially when a large hindering load is added. The behavior…
Transport of intracellular cargo is often mediated by teams of molecular motors that function in a chaotic environment under varying conditions. We show that the motors have unique steady state behavior which enables transport modalities…
The assumption of linear response of protein molecules to thermal noise or structural perturbations, such as ligand binding or detachment, is broadly used in the studies of protein dynamics. Conformational motions in proteins are…