Related papers: Kinesin as an electrostatic machine
Microtubules are key structural elements of living cells that are crucial for cell division, intracellular transport and motility. Recent experiments have shown that microtubule severing proteins and molecular motors stimulate the direct…
Enzymes show two distinct transport behaviors in the presence of their substrates in solution. First, their diffusivity enhances with increasing substrate concentration. In addition, enzymes perform directional motion toward regions with…
Adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-binding cassette (ABC) transporters form a family of molecular motor proteins that couple ATP hydrolysis to substrate translocation across cell membranes. Each nucleotide binding domain of ABC-transporters…
Under the most common experimental conditions, the adsorption of proteins to solid surfaces is an spontaneous process that leads to a rather compact layer of randomly oriented molecules. Due to the importance of this process for the…
Here we study a driven lattice gas model for microtubule depolymerizing molecular motors, where traffic jams of motors induce stochastic switching between microtubule growth and shrinkage. We term this phenomenon \enquote{traffic dynamic…
In living cells, oscillation of the concentration of cytosolic Ca2+ is an important and pervasive signal for the intercellular and intracellular information conduction. To generate the oscillation, the hydrolysis of ATP is always needed.…
We propose a theory based on non-equilibrium thermodynamics to describe the mechanical behavior of an active polymer gel created by the inclusion of molecular motors in its solvent. When activated, these motors attach to the chains of the…
The microtubule (MT) motor Kip3p is very processive kinesin that promotes catastrophes and pausing in particular on cortical contact. These properties explain the role of Kip3p in positioning the mitotic spindle in budding yeast and…
Biological molecular machines are enzymes that simultaneously catalyze two processes, one donating free energy and second accepting it. Recent studies show that most native protein enzymes have a rich stochastic dynamics that often…
Colloidal motors without moving parts can be propelled by self-diffusiophoresis, coupling molecular concentration gradients generated by surface chemical reactions to the velocity slip between solid Janus particles and the surrounding fluid…
Nonequilibrium energetics of single molecule translational motor kinesin was investigated by measuring heat dissipation from the violation of the fluctuation-response relation of a probe attached to the motor using optical tweezers. The sum…
Living systems efficiently use chemical fuel to do work, process information, and assemble patterns despite thermal noise. Whether high efficiency arises from general principles or specific fine-tuning is unknown. Here, applying a recent…
Successful cell division requires a tight regulation of chromosome motion via the activity of molecular motors. Many of the key players at the origin of the forces generating the movement have been identified, but their spatial and temporal…
We introduce a new approach to build microscopic engines on the atomic scale that move translationally or rotationally and can perform useful functions such as pulling of a cargo. Characteristic of these engines is the possibility to…
Actin filaments, crosslinkers and myosin molecular motors form contractile networks. For instance, the cell cortex is a thin network below the cell membrane ; contraction of the cell cortex allows cells to round up during cell division.…
Length-regulation of microtubules (MTs) is essential for many cellular processes. Molecular motors like kinesin 8, which move along MTs and also act as depolymerases, are known as key players in MT dynamics. However, the regulatory…
Simulations can help unravel the complicated ways in which molecular structure determines function. Here, we use molecular simulations to show how slight alterations of a molecular motor's structure can cause the motor's typical dynamical…
Peristalsis by actively generated waves of muscle contraction is one of the most fundamental ways of producing motion in living systems. We show that peristalsis can be modeled by a train of rectangular-shaped solitary waves of localized…
Randomly moving active particles can be herded into directed motion by asymmetric geometric structures. Although such a rectification process has been extensively studied due to its fundamental, biological, and technological relevance, a…
Molecular motor proteins serve as an essential component of intracellular transport by generating forces to haul cargoes along cytoskeletal filaments. Two species of motors that are directed oppositely (e.g. kinesin, dynein) can be attached…