Length regulation of microtubules by molecular motors: Exact solution and density profiles

Abstract

In this work we study a microtubule (MT) model, whose length is regulated by the action of processive kinesin motors. We treat the case of infinite processivity, i.e. particle exchange in the bulk is neglected. The exact results can be obtained for model parameters which correspond to a finite length of the MT. In contrast to the model with particle exchange we find that the lengths of the MT are exponentially distributed in this parameter regime. The remaining parameter space of the model, which corresponds to diverging MT lengths, is analyzed by means of extensive Monte Carlo simulations and a macroscopic approach. For divergent MTs we find a complex structure of the phase diagram in terms of shapes of the density profile.