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Comment
. 2002 May 14;99(10):6521-3.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.112200199.

Push or pull? Teams of motor proteins have it both ways

Thomas Duke  1
Affiliations
Comment

Push or pull? Teams of motor proteins have it both ways

Thomas Duke. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .
No abstract available

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Simplified isothermal ratchet model of a motor protein considered by Badoual et al. A motor makes stochastic transitions between a bound and a detached state at fixed rates. The interaction potentials with the filament—different for each state—are indicated below. Attachment can occur at any location, but detachment is permitted only when the motor is in the vicinity of the potential minimum. (a) An individual processive motor can carry a cargo unidirectionally along a polar cytoskeletal filament. A motor that has just detached will be at the location of the potential minimum, as shown. Free diffusion will carry it past the potential peak to the right with greater probability than the more distant peak to the left. Consequently, when it rebinds, it is more likely to drift to the potential minimum to the right (as shown), than to the minimum to the left. The overall motion is therefore rightwards on average. (b) A team of motors can drive a nonpolar filament both forwards and backwards. Suppose that the filament is moving to the right. Then, owing to the detachment of motors that have recently passed through a potential well, there are more bound motors on the left-facing slope of the potential than on the right-facing slope (as shown). Sliding down the slope, these motors produce a force that maintains the rightward movement. An equivalent argument shows that the filament could just as well be driven to the left.
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Comment on

References

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