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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/35222
Description
Title
Phenomenological models of motor proteins
Author(s)
Sankar, Prasanth
Issue Date
2006-10
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Oono, Yoshitsugu
Department of Study
Physics
Discipline
Physics
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Motor Proteins
Kinetic Scheme
Elastic Motor-Cargo
Affinity Switch Model
Language
en
Abstract
Motor proteins produce directional movement and mechanical output in cells by converting chemical energy into mechanical work. Innovative applications of physics experimental techniques to the study of motor proteins have generated a wealth of data. By careful analysis and modeling of this data, we try to gain a quantitative understanding of this biological system. We have proposed a way to incorporate the biochemical data on motor proteins into the modeling and thus minimize the number of fitting parameters and increase the relevance of the models. Mechanical understandings of motor proteins are obtained by using an experimental technique of observing the motion of a large cargo elastically attached to it. On modeling the effect of the elastic motor-cargo link on the motion of the cargo, we see that the conclusions on motor mechanism derived from such techniques are dependent on the size of the cargo as well as the stiffness of the link. By proposing a new modeling scheme, we devise a unified description of such experiments for various motor proteins. This description is based on the picture that the motor thermal fluctuations are rectified in a preferred direction by means of barriers whose heights are modulated by the chemical reactions taking place at the motor.
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