Transport properties of melanosomes along microtubules interpreted by a tug-of-war model with loose mechanical coupling.

ABSTRACT: In this work, we explored theoretically the transport of organelles driven along microtubules by molecular motors of opposed polarities using a stochastic model that considers a Langevin dynamics for the cargo, independent cargo-motor linkers and stepping motion for the motors. It has been recently proposed that the stiffness of the motor plays an important role when multiple motors collectively transport a cargo. Therefore, we considered in our model the recently reported values for the stiffness of the cargo-motor linker determined in living cells (∼0.01 pN/nm,) which is significantly lower than the motor stiffness obtained in in vitro assays and used in previous studies. Our model could reproduce the multimodal velocity distributions and typical trajectory characteristics including the

SUBMITTER: Bouzat S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3431353 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature