Bistability, oscillations and bidirectional motion of ensemble of hydrodynamically-coupled molecular motors

TL;DR

This paper investigates how hydrodynamic interactions among molecular motors lead to complex collective behaviors like bistability and oscillations, providing a phase diagram and relevance to biological intracellular transport.

Contribution

It introduces a mean-field model revealing how hydrodynamic coupling induces bistability and oscillations in large motor ensembles, highlighting physical mechanisms and biological relevance.

Findings

Hydrodynamic interactions cause bidirectional cargo motion.

Oscillations and bistability occur in large motor groups.

Phase diagram maps different collective behaviors.

Abstract

We analyze the collective behavior of hydrodynamically coupled molecular motors. We show that the local fluxes induced by motors displacement can induce the experimentally observed bidirectional motion of cargoes and vesicles. By means of a mean--field approach we show that sustained oscillations as well as bistable collective motor motion arise even for very large collection of motors, when thermal noise is irrelevant. The analysis clarifies the physical mechanisms responsible for such dynamics by identifying the relevant coupling parameter and its dependence on the geometry of the hydrodynamic coupling as well as on system size. We quantify the phase diagram for the different phases that characterize the collective motion of hydrodynamically coupled motors and show that sustained oscillations can be reached for biologically relevant parameters, hence demonstrating the relevance of hydrodynamic interactions in intracellular transport.