Generic transport mechanisms for molecular traffic in cellular protrusions

Abstract

Transport of molecular motors along protein filaments in a half-closed geometry is a common feature of biologically relevant processes in cellular protrusions. Using a lattice gas model we study how the interplay between active and diffusive transport and mass conservation leads to localised domain walls and tip localisation of the motors. We identify a mechanism for task sharing between the active motors (maintaining a gradient) and the diffusive motion (transport to the tip), which ensures that energy consumption is low and motor exchange mostly happens at the tip. These features are attributed to strong nearest-neighbour correlations that lead to a strong reduction of active currents, which we calculate analytically using an exact moment-identity, and might prove useful for the understanding of correlations and active transport also in more elaborate systems.