Molecular motor traffic: From biological nanomachines to macroscopic transport

Reinhard Lipowsky, Yan Chai, Stefan Klumpp, Steffen Liepelt and Melanie J.I. Müller

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2006, vol. 372, issue 1, 34-51

Abstract: All cells of animals and plants contain complex transport systems based on molecular motors which walk along cytoskeletal filaments. These motors are rather small and have a size of 20–100nm but are able to pull vesicles, organelles and other types of cargo over large distances, from micrometers up to meters. There are several families of motors: kinesins, dyneins, and myosins. Most of these motors have two heads which are used as legs and perform discrete steps along the filaments. Several aspects of the motor behavior will be discussed: motor cycles of two-headed motors; walks of single motors or cargo particles which consist of directed movements interrupted by random, diffusive motion; cargo transport through tube-like compartments; active diffusion of cargo particles in slab-like compartments; cooperative transport of cargo by several motors which may be uni- or bi-directional; and systems with many interacting motors that exhibit traffic jams, self-organized density and flux patterns, and traffic phase transitions far from equilibrium. It is necessary to understand these traffic phenomena in a quantitative manner in order to construct and optimize biomimetic transport systems based on motors and filaments with many possible applications in bioengineering, pharmacology, and medicine.

Date: 2006
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:372:y:2006:i:1:p:34-51

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2006.05.019

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