Controlling the mesoscopic motion of diffusive molecular-motors by molecular means

摘要

The spatio-temporal dynamics of molecular motors and the potential of its control are studied on the basis of a spatially dependent Fokker-Planck model. The model considers spatially inhomogeneous excitation coupling the energetic sublevels of the molecules as well as dynamic spatial fluctuations and diffusion. Simulations show that both the spatio-temporal noise in the molecular properties and the spatio-temporal excitation set an upper limit to the efficiency of the motor progression. Moreover, a sufficiently small molecular diffusion, as well as a thorough adjustment of transition rates, leads to a regular forward propagation while for high diffusion and improperly chosen rates spatio-temporally diverging particle distributions may evolve. Suitable excitation conditions for efficient movement control are identified.