Speed and load characterization of actin-myosin nanomotor

Abstract

Abstract The functioning of any device or system essentially depends on the behaviour of the constituent materials. Nanomaterials due to their excellent mechanical properties are being used presently in almost every field. There exist nature designed nanomaterials functioning in the living systems right from the beginning of life. So, there is a need to study the specific functions being performed by these nanomaterials or nanosystems to understand their behaviour. The Actin-Myosin nanomotors which are responsible for muscle contraction phenomenon in living system have been explored in this research work. The biomechanics of the Actin and Myosin nano-motors have been studied using customized developed Matlab programs. It was observed that steps produced by the nanomotors results in relative speed up to around 5 microns/seconds during invitro motility experiments. It was found that variation in the length of the actin filament does not affect any marginal change on speed. The variation of relative speed with different loads has also been determined and it has been observed that increasing the load from 0.0054 pN to 0.145 pN results in speed reduction from 3.32 µm/s to 1.12 µm/s. The findings can be very useful in drug delivery and nanorobotic applications.