Analytical Aspects of Molecular Motor Ensemble Dynamics

The functioning and survival of eukaryotic cells is critically dependent on intracellular transport, a process mainly enabled by molecular motors. The transport is often facilitated by teams of multiple motors, possibly of the same or different kind. Understanding how various motors in a team interact to carry cargoes against varying load forces can shed light on underlying mechanisms of intracellular transport. Numerous theoretical studies have resorted to monte-carlo or semi-analytical based models to draw insightful inferences. We utilize semi-analytic methods and Markov models for the analysis, by investigating the relative arrangements of the motors ferrying common cargo. Our study suggests that the motor-cargo assembly is a robust system, with motors adopting unique steady state relative configurations. The configurations are affected by numerous external factors, including load forces on the cargo. Under low loads, motors do not conform to any particular arrangements, but tend to cluster together under increasing loads. Under high loads, similar to sudden obstacles, motors favor configurations that aid immediate cargo translocation once the load has subsided. We present extensive mathematical proofs for a general case of any (finite) number of motors carrying the cargo.