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Updated: Jan 24, 2026

Characterizing the Composition of Molecular Motors on Moving Axonal Cargo Using "Cargo Mapping" Analysis
Published on: October 30, 2014
Anomalous Dynamics of in Vivo Cargo Delivery by Motor Protein Multiplexes
Kyujin Shin1, Sanggeun Song2,3,4, Yo Han Song1
1Department of Chemistry, School of Physics and Chemistry , Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) , Gwangju 61005 , Korea.
Abstract:
Vesicle transport conducted by motor protein multiplexes (MPMs), which is ubiquitous among eukaryotes, shows anomalous and stochastic dynamics qualitatively different from the dynamics of thermal motion and artificial active matter; the relationship between in vivo vesicle-delivery dynamics and the underlying physicochemical processes is not yet quantitatively understood. Addressing this issue, we perform accurate tracking of individual vesicles, containing upconverting nanoparticles, transported by kinesin-dynein-multiplexes along axonal microtubules. The mean-square-displacement of vesicles along the microtubule exhibits unusual dynamic phase transitions that are seemingly inconsistent with the scaling behavior of the mean-first-passage time over the travel length. These paradoxical results and the vesicle displacement distribution are quantitatively explained and predicted by a multimode MPM model, developed in the current work, where ATP-hydrolysis-coupled motion of MPM has both unidirectional and bidirectional modes.
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