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Updated: May 31, 2026

Light-driven Molecular Motors on Surfaces for Single Molecular Imaging
Published on: March 13, 2019
Molecular motor traffic in a half-open tube
Melanie J I Müller1, Stefan Klumpp, Reinhard Lipowsky
1Max-Planck-Institut für Kolloid- und Grenzflächenforschung, 14424 Potsdam, Germany.
Abstract:
The traffic of molecular motors which interact through mutual exclusion is studied theoretically for half-open tube-like compartments. These half-open tubes mimic the shapes of axons. The mutual exclusion leads to traffic jams or density plateaus on the filaments. A phase transition is obtained when the motor velocity changes sign. We identify the relevant length scales and characterize the jamming behaviour using both analytical approximations and Monte Carlo simulations of lattice models.
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