Molecular motors: design, mechanism and control

Abstract

Biological functions in each animal cell depend on coordinated operations of a wide variety of molecular motors. Some of the these motors transport cargo to their respective destinations whereas some others are mobile workshops which synthesize macromolecules while moving on their tracks. Some other motors are designed to function as packers and movers. All these motors require input energy for performing their mechanical works and operate under conditions far from thermodynamic equilibrium. The typical size of these motors and the forces they generate are of the order of nano-meters and pico-Newtons, respectively. They are subjected to random bombardments by the molecules of the surrounding aqueous medium and, therefore, follow noisy trajectories. Because of their small inertia, their movements in the viscous intracellular space exhibits features that are characteristics of hydrodynamics at low Reynold's number. In this article we discuss how theoretical modeling and computer simulations of these machines by physicists are providing insight into their mechanisms which engineers can exploit to design and control artificial nano-motors.