Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 16: Molecular Motors

BP 16.5: Talk

Wednesday, March 28, 2012, 16:30–16:45, H 1028

Distinct Transport Regimes for Two Elastically Coupled Molecular Motors — •Florian Berger, Corina Keller, Stefan Klumpp, and Reinhard Lipowsky — Theory & Bio-Systems, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, 14424 Potsdam, Germany

Intracellular transport of cargos is mainly achieved by the cooperative action of molecular motors, which pull the cargos along cytoskeletal filaments. These motors are elastically coupled, which influences the motors' velocity and/or enhances their unbinding from the filament. We show theoretically that interference between two elastically coupled motors leads, in general, to four distinct transport regimes characterized by different effects on the mean velocity and/or the binding time. To gain an intuitive insight in the emergence of these transport regimes, we compare characteristic time scales for the strain force generation. These time scale arguments allow us to predict the transport regimes for different pairs of identical motors. In addition to a weak coupling regime, pairs of kinesin motors and pairs of dynein motors are found to exhibit a strong coupling and an enhanced unbinding regime, whereas pairs of myosin motors are predicted to attain a reduced velocity regime. All of the predicted regimes can be explored experimentally by varying the elastic coupling strength.