Network Complexity and Parametric Simplicity for Cargo Transport by Two Molecular Motors.

Cargo transport by two molecular motors is studied by constructing a chemomechanical network for the whole transport system and analyzing the cargo and motor trajectories generated by this network. The theoretical description starts from the different nucleotide states of a single motor supplemented by chemical and mechanical transitions between these states. As an instructive example, we focus on kinesin-1, for which a detailed single-motor network has been developed previously. This network incorporates the chemical transitions arising from ATP hydrolysis on both motor heads. In addition, both the chemical and the mechanical transition rates of a single kinesin motor were found to depend on the load force experienced by the motor. When two such motors are attached via their stalks to a cargo particle, they become elastically coupled. This coupling can be effectively described by an elastic spring between the two motors. The spring extension, which is given by the deviation of the actual spring length from its rest length, determines the mutual interaction force between the motors and, thus, affects all chemical and mechanical transition rates of both motors. As a result, cargo transport by two motors leads to a combined chemomechanical network, which is quite complex and contains a large number of motor cycles. However, apart from the single motor parameters, this complex network involves only two additional parameters: (i) the spring constant of the elastic coupling between the motors and (ii) the rebinding rate for an unbound motor. We show that these two parameters can be determined directly from cargo trajectories and/or trajectories of individual motors. Both types of trajectories are accessible to experiment and, thus, can be used to obtain a complete set of parameters for cargo transport by two motors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]