Random walks of cytoskeletal motors in open and closed compartments - art.no. 108101

Random walks of molecular motors, which bind to and unbind from cytoskeleta l filaments, are studied theoretically. The bound and unbound motors underg o directed and nondirected motion, respectively. Motors in open compartment s exhibit anomalous drift velocities. Motors in closed compartments generat e stationary nonequilibrium states with spatially varying densities of the motor concentrations and currents. "Traffic jams" on the filaments lead to a maximum of the motor current at an optimal motor concentration. Quantitat ive estimates based on experimental data for bound motors indicate that the se transport phenomena are accessible to experiments.