Incollection,
Enhanced cooperativity and collective force-velocity curves of interacting molecular motors
Abstract Book of the XXIII IUPAP International Conference on Statistical Physics, Genova, Italy, (9-13 July 2007)
Abstract
We study the collective behavior of ensembles of weakly coupled
processive molecular motors subject to an external force. In the
framework of a general two-state model, we demonstrate that if the
external force is unequally loaded to the motors, they can
generically cooperate constructively to perform more efficiently
than separately. We show that, given a specific type of motor and
an interaction potential, it is possible to define a limiting
collective force-velocity curve which is extensive with the number
of motors but may significantly differ from that of a single motor
if interactions are short-ranged. For small ensembles of motors,
collective force-velocity curves may exhibit surprising
non-monotonic behavior. The effects and predictions are well
understood with the help of exact analytical calculations and
extensive numerical simulation. They are relevant in the general
context of Browninan motors, but may be particularly useful to
biological motors, in particular to monomeric kinesins.
