title: A mathematical model describing the mechanical kinetics of kinesin stepping.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Kinesin is a smart motor protein that steps processively forward and backward along microtubules (MTs). The mechanical kinetics of kinesin affecting its stepping behavior is not fully understood. Here, we propose a mathematical model to study the mechanical kinetics of forward and backward stepping of kinesin motor based on the four-state discrete stochastic model of the motor.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results show that the probabilities of forward and backward stepping can be modeled using the mean probabilities of forward and backward kinetic transitions, respectively. We show that the backward stepping of kinesin motor starts when the probability of adenosine diphosphate (ADP) binding to the motor is much higher than that of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) binding. Furthermore, our results indicate that the backward stepping is related to both ATP hydrolysis and synthesis with rate limiting factor being ATP synthesis. Low rate of ATP synthesis under high backward loads above 10 pN is also suggested as a reason for the detachment of kinesin motor from MT in the kinetic state MTċKinesinċADPċPi.
  
  
  METHODS
  The code for this work is written in Visual C# and is available by request from the authors.
authors.affiliation: School of Information and Communication Technology, Gold Coast Campus, Griffith University, QLD 4222, Australia.
authors.forename: Hamidreza
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Khataee
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wee-Chung Liew
mesh_terms: D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate / Q000378:metabolism; D006868:Hydrolysis; D016547:Kinesins / Q000378:metabolism*; D007700:Kinetics; D008870:Microtubules / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D011336:Probability
chemical_list: D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate; D016547:Kinesins