One Dimensional Exclusion Process with Dynein Inspired Hops: Simulation and Mean Field Analysis

Abstract

We introduce a one-dimensional non-equilibrium lattice gas model representing the processive motion of dynein molecular motors over the microtubule. We study both dynamical and stationary state properties for the model consisting of hardcore particles hopping on the lattice with variable step sizes. We find that the stationary state gap-distribution exhibits striking peaks around gap sizes that are multiples of the maximum step size, for both open and periodic boundary conditions. We verified this feature using a mean-field calculation. For open boundary conditions, we observe intriguing damped oscillator-like distribution of particles over the lattice with a periodicity equal to the maximum step size. To characterize transient dynamics, we measure the mean square displacement that shows weak superdiffusive growth with exponent $$\gamma \approx 1.34$$ for periodic boundary and ballistic growth ( $$\gamma \approx 2$$ ) for open boundary conditions at early times. We also study the effect of Langmuir dynamics on the density profile.