Sequence heterogeneity and the dynamics of molecular motors

TL;DR

This paper reviews how sequence heterogeneity affects molecular motor dynamics using lattice models, highlighting experimental implications and analyzing motors on heterogeneous and periodic tracks with various fuel sources.

Contribution

It introduces and analyzes lattice models to understand the impact of sequence heterogeneity on molecular motor behavior, including experimental predictions.

Findings

Heterogeneous tracks cause anomalous drift and diffusion near stall force.

Strong bias leads to one-way hopping dynamics.

Periodic tracks with mixed fuels are relevant to kinesin motion.

Abstract

The effect of sequence heterogeneity on the dynamics of molecular motors is reviewed and analyzed using a set of recently introduced lattice models. First, we review results for the influence of heterogenous tracks such as a single-strand of DNA or RNA on the dynamics of the motors. We stress how the predicted behavior might be observed experimentally in anomalous drift and diffusion of motors over a wide range of parameters near the stall force and discuss the extreme limit of strongly biased motors with one-way hopping. We then consider the dynamics in an environment containing a variety of different fuels which supply chemical energy for the motor motion, either on a heterogeneous or on a periodic track. The results for motion along a periodic track are relevant to kinesin motors in a solution with a mixture of different nucleotide triphosphate fuel sources.