Models for cargo transport by molecular motors on microtubules

SEBASTIÁN BOUZAT

Villa Carlos Paz

Workshop; XIII Latin American Workshop on Nonlinear Phenomena; 2013

Universidad Nacional de Córdoba

(INVITED TALK)Kinesin and dynein are molecular motors (also called motor proteins) which use the energy fromATP hydrolysis to move big cargoes such as lipid droplets or mitochondria inside cells. Thesemolecular motors perform directional walks along the microtubules, which act as long polymerhighways for transport.Kinesins move to the plus end of the microtubules, i.e.preferablyfrom the nucleus to the cell periphery, whereas dyneins move in the opposite direction. Usually,several motors of each type are linked to a single cargo, so that the transport is bidirectional. Inthis talk we discuss the problem of modeling transport by multiple-motors on microtubules. Weintroduce stochastic models which consider a Langevin equation for the position of the cargo andMontecarlo-like dynamics for motors. We analyze the inuence of motor-motor interactions ontransport, as well as the role of dierent system parameters including the cytoplasmic viscosityand the elasticity of the individual motors. We apply the models to the interpretation of datataken from in vivo experiments.