title: Distinct transport regimes for two elastically coupled molecular motors.
abstract: Cooperative cargo transport by two molecular motors involves an elastic motor-motor coupling, which can reduce the motors' velocity and/or enhance their unbinding from the filament. We show theoretically that these interference effects lead, in general, to four distinct transport regimes. In addition to a weak coupling regime, kinesin and dynein motors are found to exhibit a strong coupling and an enhanced unbinding regime, whereas myosin motors are predicted to attain a reduced velocity regime. All of these regimes, which we derive by explicit calculations and general time scale arguments, can be explored experimentally by varying the elastic coupling strength.
authors.affiliation: Theory and Bio-Systems, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, 14424 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.forename: Corina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Klumpp
authors.forename: Reinhard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lipowsky
mesh_terms: D001692:Biological Transport; D004548:Elasticity; D008956:Models, Chemical; D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins