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"Burnt-bridge" mechanism of molecular motor motion

T Antal1, P L Krapivsky

  • 1Department of Physics and Center for Molecular Cybernetics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.

Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
|December 31, 2005
PubMed

Insights

This study models a biased random walk where walkers destroy bridges, creating directed motion. Analytical solutions reveal how bridge destruction probability affects walker velocity and diffusion.

Area of Science:

  • Statistical Mechanics
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Biophysics

Background:

  • Molecular motors exhibit biased diffusion influenced by substrate interactions.
  • Understanding transport phenomena in disordered systems is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Investigate a one-dimensional random walk model with substrate-dependent bias.
  • Analyze the effect of 'bridges' that are destroyed by the walker.
  • Determine the walker's velocity and diffusion properties.

Main Methods:

  • Analytical determination of walker velocity for equidistant bridges.
  • Calculation of velocity and diffusion constant for specific bridge destruction probability (p=1).
  • Analysis of uncorrelated bridge locations, including periodic and random distributions.

Main Results:

  • Walker-induced bridge destruction leads to directed motion.
  • Analytical solutions for walker velocity derived.
  • Velocity and diffusion constant calculated for p=1, considering various bridge distributions.

Conclusions:

  • The model provides insights into directed transport in systems with dynamic obstacles.
  • Bridge destruction mechanism effectively induces directed motion in a random walk.
  • The study offers a framework for analyzing biased diffusion in complex environments.

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