Regensburg 2025 – scientific programme
Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help
BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 17: Poster Session II
BP 17.2: Poster
Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 18:00–20:30, P4
Stochastic modeling of a two-component polymer engine — •Yasmin Abdelghaffar1 and Marcus Jahnel1,2 — 1Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany — 2Biotec, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Long coiled-coil tethering proteins and small GTPases have recently been shown to form a new class of biomolecular motors driven by entropic collapse. The working principle of this motor is a cyclic flexibility transition of its filamentous tether, triggered by the GTPase unit. While a basic working model was proposed (Singh, 2023), many fundamental aspects of these two-component molecular motors remain unexplored. Here, we developed a stochastic model as an over-damped to-state semi-flexible polymer to describe the mechanochemical cycle that drives this motor. Using this model, we can predict how efficiency and power of this motor are affected by changes in model parameters such as persistence lengths. Additionally, by introducing force-dependent rates in the mechanochemical coupling of our model, we can potentially explain previous discrepancies in the measured hydrolysis rate of GTP between in bulk experiments, which occur under no force, and tweezer experiments, where the system is under tension. Our simulation study thus makes an indication on the chemical nature of the coiled-coil protein within the motor, identifying it as a potential GTPase-activating protein.
Keywords: Stochastic thermodynamics; Molecular motor; Active matter; Single molecule; Polymers