Filament-filament switching can be regulated by separation between filaments together with cargo motor number

How intracellular transport controls the probability that cargos switch at intersections between filaments is not well understood. In one hypothesis some motors on the cargo attach to one filament while others attach to the intersecting filament, and the ensuing tug-of-war determines which filament is chosen. We investigate this hypothesis using 3D computer simulations, and discover that switching at intersections increases with the number of motors on the cargo, but is not strongly dependent on motor number when the filaments touch. Thus, simply controlling the number of active motors on the cargo cannot account for in vivo observations that found reduced switching with increasing motor number, suggesting additional mechanisms of regulation. We use simulations to show that one possible way to regulate switching is by simultaneously adjusting the separation between planes containing the crossing filaments and the total number of active motors on the cargo. Heretofore, the effect of filament-filament separation on switching has been unexplored. We find that the switching probability decreases with increasing filament separation. This effect is particularly strong for cargos with only a modest number of motors. As the filament separation increases past the maximum head-to-head distance of the motor, individual motors walking along a filament will be unable to reach the intersecting filament. Thus, any switching requires that other motors on the cargo attach to the intersecting filament and haul the cargo along it, while motor(s) engaged on the original filament detach. Further, if the filament separation is large enough, the cargo can have difficulty proceeding along the initial filament because the engaged motors can walk underneath the intersecting filament, but the cargo itself cannot fit between the filaments. Thus, the cargo either detaches entirely from the original filament, or must dip to the side of the initial filament and then pass below the crossing filament.