Biology – Quantitative Biology – Subcellular Processes
Scientific paper
2008-07-03
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105, 4609-4614 (2008)
Biology
Quantitative Biology
Subcellular Processes
17 pages, latex, 11 figures, 4 tables, includes Supporting Information
Scientific paper
10.1073/pnas.0706825105
Intracellular transport is based on molecular motors that pull cargos along cytoskeletal filaments. One motor species always moves in one direction, e.g. conventional kinesin moves to the microtubule plus end, while cytoplasmic dynein moves to the microtubule minus end. However, many cellular cargos are observed to move bidirectionally, involving both plus-end and minus-end directed motors. The presumably simplest mechanism for such bidirectional transport is provided by a tug-of-war between the two motor species. This mechanism is studied theoretically using the load-dependent transport properties of individual motors as measured in single-molecule experiments. In contrast to previous expectations, such a tug-of-war is found to be highly cooperative and to exhibit seven different motility regimes depending on the precise values of the single motor parameters. The sensitivity of the transport process to small parameter changes can be used by the cell to regulate its cargo traffic.
Klumpp Stefan
Lipowsky Reinhard
Müller Melanie J. I.
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