Self-organized density patterns of molecular motors in arrays of cytoskeletal filaments

Abstract

The stationary states of systems with many molecular motors are studied theoretically for uniaxial and centered (aster-like) arrangements of cytoskeletal filaments using Monte Carlo simulations and a two-state model. Mutual exclusion of motors from binding sites of the filaments is taken into account. For small overall motor concentration, the density profiles are exponential and algebraic in uniaxial and centered filament systems, respectively. For uniaxial systems, exclusion leads to the coexistence of regions of high and low densities of bound motors corresponding to motor traffic jams, which grow upon increasing the overall motor concentration. These jams are insensitive to the motor behavior at the end of the filament. In centered systems, traffic jams remain small and an increase in the motor concentration leads to a flattening of the profile, if the motors move inwards, and to the build-up of a concentration maximum in the center of the aster if motors move outwards. In addition to motors density patterns, we also determine the corresponding patterns of the motor current.

arXiv comment48 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (6)

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• Dynamic concentration of motors in microtubule arrays
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• Intracellular transport driven by cytoskeletal motors: General mechanisms and defects
• Modelling cytoskeletal traffic: an interplay between passive diffusion and active transport
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• Movements of molecular motors: Ratchets, random walks and traffic phenomena
• Quantifying intermittent transport in cell cytoplasm
• Molecular motor traffic in a half-open tube
• Transport by molecular motors in the presence of static defects
• Two-species active transport along cylindrical biofilaments is limited by emergent topological hindrance
• Traffic of Molecular Motors
• Cooperative transport by small teams of molecular motors
• Existence and uniqueness of solution of the differential equation describing the TASEP-LK coupled transport process