Self-Organized Lane Formation in Bidirectional Transport by Molecular Motors

Within cells, vesicles and proteins are actively transported several micrometers along the cytoskeletal filaments. The transport along microtubules is propelled by dynein and kinesin motors, which carry the cargo in opposite directions. Bidirectional intracellular transport is performed with great efficiency, even under strong confinement, as for example in the axon. For this kind of transport system, one would expect generically cluster formation. In this talk, I'll discuss the effect of the recently observed self-enhanced binding-affinity along the kinesin trajectories on the MT. In particular, a stochastic lattice-gas model will be introduced, where the enhanced binding affinity is realized via a floor-field. From Monte Carlo simulations and a mean-field analysis we show that this mechanism can lead to self-organized symmetry-breaking and lane-formation which indeed leads to efficient bidirectional transport in narrow environments. 

Ref.:  R. Jose, L. Santen: Self-Organized Lane Formation in Bidirectional Transport by Molecular Motors, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 198103 (2020).