Maximum power operation of interacting molecular motors

TL;DR

This paper investigates how interactions among molecular motors like kinesin influence their efficiency and dynamics, revealing that interactions can significantly enhance thermodynamic efficiency at maximum power in biological systems.

Contribution

It introduces models showing motor-motor interactions improve efficiency and explores the impact of these interactions on chemical cycles and system behavior.

Findings

Motor interactions increase thermodynamic efficiency at maximum power.

Interactions affect internal chemical cycles of motors.

Enhanced efficiency observed across various biological scenarios.

Abstract

We study the mechanical and thermodynamic properties of different traffic models for kinesin which are relevant in biological and experimental contexts. We find that motor-motor interactions play a fundamental role by enhancing the thermodynamic efficiency at maximum power of the motors, as compared to the non-interacting system, in a wide range of biologically compatible scenarios. We furthermore consider the case where the motor-motor interaction directly affects the internal chemical cycle and investigate the effect on the system dynamics and thermodynamics.