Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 7, 2026

Directly Measuring Forces Within Reconstituted Active Microtubule Bundles
Published on: May 10, 2022
Energetics of the single-headed kinesin KIF1A
1Cybermedia Center, Osaka University, Toyonaka 560-0043, Japan and Department of Biophysics Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.
Abstract:
KIF1A is a single-headed molecular motor that moves processively and unidirectionally along a microtubule by using the chemical energy released by hydrolyzing adenosine triphosphate (ATP) into adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and inorganic phosphate (P(i)). Although the movement of KIF1A seems to have successfully been explained by a simple Brownian motor model of the flashing ratchet type, this model is not suited to discuss the energetics of KIF1A. We introduce an elaborated model of the ratchet type to investigate how the chemical free energy is converted into mechanical work by taking account of the binding and release of reactant (ATP) and product (ADP and P(i)) molecules to and from the motor. The efficiency of energy transduction, the power output, and other quantities are calculated from the analytically obtained steady-state solution of the Fokker-Planck equations. It turns out that the concentrations of the reactant and product molecules that optimize both the efficiency and the power are close to those in the cell.
Related Concept Videos
The Movement of Organelles and Vesicles
Energy to Drive Translocation
Generally, polypeptides are unfolded by two distinct...
Anaphase A and B
Plus-end depolymerization releases tubulin heterodimers from the terminal region of the microtubule. As tubulin subunits are lost, the Ndc80 complexes detach...
ATP Synthase: Structure
Microtubule Associated Motor Proteins
ATP Driven Pumps I: An Overview
There are four main types of ATP-driven pumps - P-type, V-type, F-type, and ABC transporter. All these pumps are of varying complexities and are...

