Eur. Phys. J. E (2005) 17: 155-163
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2004-10137-6

Regular Articles

Motor proteins transporting cargos

¹ Institut Curie, Section de Recherche, UMR 168 CNRS, 26 rue d’Ulm, 75248, Paris Cedex 05, France
² ESPCI, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75231, Paris Cedex 05, France

^* e-mail: jean-francois.joanny@curie.fr

Received: 30 November 2004
Accepted: 23 March 2005
Published online: 9 May 2005

Abstract

Processive motor proteins such as kinesin and myosin-V are enzymes that use the energy of ATP hydrolysis to travel along polar cytoskeletal filaments. One of the functions of these proteins is the transport of vesicles and protein complexes that are linked to the light chains of the motors. Modeling the light chain by a linear elastic spring, and using the two-state model for one- and two-headed molecular motors, we study the influence of thermal fluctuations of the cargo on the motion of the motor-cargo complex. We solve numerically the Fokker-Planck equations of motor motion, and find that the mean velocity of the motor-cargo complex decreases monotonously as the spring becomes softer. This effect is due to the random force of thermal fluctuations of the cargo disrupting the operation of the motor. Increasing the size (thus, the friction coefficient) of the cargo also decreases the velocity. Surprisingly, we find that for a given size of the cargo, the velocity has a maximum for a certain friction of the motor. We explain this effect by the interplay between the characteristic length of thermal fluctuations of the cargo on a spring, the motor diffusion length, and the filament period. Our results may be relevant for the interpretation of single-molecule experiments with molecular motors (bead assays), where the motor motion is observed by tracking of a bead attached to the motor.