Walks of molecular motors interacting with immobilized filaments

TL;DR

This paper models the movement of molecular motors on filaments, accounting for detachment and reattachment, and analyzes their behavior using analytical and numerical methods in finite geometries.

Contribution

It provides an analytical framework for understanding motor dynamics with detachment and reattachment, including finite system effects.

Findings

Derived expressions for bound motor fraction and velocity

Analyzed effects of finite geometries on motor behavior

Validated models with numerical simulations

Abstract

Movements of molecular motors on cytoskeletal filaments are described by directed walks on a line. Detachment from this line is allowed to occur with a small probability. Motion in the surrounding fluid is described by symmetric random walks. Effects of detachment and reattachment are calculated by an analytical solution of the master equation. Results are obtained for the fraction of bound motors, their average velocity and displacement. Enclosing the system in a finite geometry (tube, slab) leads to an experimentally realizable problem, that is studied in a continuum description and also numerically in a lattice simulation.