Molecular Motors: Energy Conversion via Chemomechanical Coupling

    Molecular motors such as kinesin are able to convert the chemical energy released from nucleotide hydrolysis into mechanical work. This chemomechanical coupling exhibits some universal features [1] and has to satisfy several thermodynamic constraints in the form of balance conditions for the possible enzymatic pathways or motor cycles [2] [3]. In fact, molecular motors with several catalytic domains are governed by several competing motor cycles as has been explicitly shown for kinesin [4] [5] and myosin V [6].

  • V. Bierbaum and R. Lipowsky
    Chemomechanical coupling and motor cycles of myosin V.
    Biophys. J. 100, 1747-1755 (2011). PDF (1 MB)

  • S. Liepelt and R. Lipowsky
    Impact of slip cycles on the operation modes and efficiency of molecular motors.
    J. Stat. Phys. 141, 1-16 (2010). PDF (561 KB)

  • R. Lipowsky, S. Liepelt, and A. Valleriani
    Energy conversion by molecular motors coupled to nucleotide hydrolysis.
    J. Stat. Phys. 135, 951-975 (2009). PDF (752 KB)

  • S. Liepelt and R. Lipowsky
    Operation modes of the molecular motor kinesin.
    Phys. Rev. E 79, 011917 (2009). PDF (380 KB)

  • A. Valleriani, S. Liepelt, and R. Lipowsky
    Dwell time distributions for kinesin's mechanical steps.
    EPL 82, 28011 (2008). PDF (288 KB)

  • R. Lipowsky and S. Liepelt
    Chemomechanical coupling of molecular motors: Thermodynamics,
    network representations, and balance conditions
    J. Stat. Phys. 130, 39 - 67 (2008). PDF (672 KB)
    Erratum: J. Stat. Phys. 135, 777-778 (2009). PDF (136 KB)

  • S. Liepelt and R. Lipowsky
    Kinesin's network of chemomechanical motor cycles.
    Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 258102 (2007). PDF (376 KB)
    Appendices: PDF (220 KB)

  • S. Liepelt and R. Lipowsky
    Steady-state balance conditions for molecular motor cycles and stochastic nonequilibrium processes.
    EPL 77, 50002 (2007). PDF (256 KB)

  • R. Lipowsky, Y. Chai, S. Klumpp, S. Liepelt and M.J.I. Müller
    Molecular motor traffic: From biological nanomachines to macroscopic transport.
    Physica A 372, 34 - 51 (2006). PDF (444 KB)

  • R. Lipowsky and S. Klumpp
    'Life is Motion': Multiscale motility of molecular motors.
    Physica A 352, 53-112, (2005). PDF (868 KB)

  • R. Lipowsky and N. Jaster
    Molecular Motor Cycles: From ratchets to networks.
    J. Stat. Phys. 110, 1141-1167 (2003). PDF (360 KB)

  • R. Lipowsky.
    Movements of molecular motors.
    In "Biological Physics 2000" ed. by V. Sa-yakanit, L. Matsson, and H. Frauenfelder
    (World Scientific, Singapore 2001) p. 41-55. PDF (208 KB)

  • R. Lipowsky.
    Universal aspects of the chemo-mechanical coupling for molecular motors.
    Phys. Rev. Lett. 85 , 4401-4404 (2000). PDF (92 KB)

  • R. Lipowsky.
    Molecular motors and stochastic models
    In ''Stochastic Processes in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology'',
    ed. by J.A. Freund and T. Pöschel,
    ''Lecture Notes in Physics'', Vol. 557, pages 21 - 31
    (Springer, Berlin 2000). PDF (136 KB)

  • R. Lipowsky and T. Harms.
    Molecular motors and nonuniform ratchets.
    Eur. Biophys. J. 29 , 542-548 (2000). PDF (144 KB)

  • T. Harms and R. Lipowsky.
    Driven Ratchets with Frozen Disorder.
    Phys. Rev. Lett. 79 , 2895-2898 (1997). PDF (140 KB)