Microtubule-enhanced cargo transport in biological cells

Abstract

Successful transport is a critical factor for the maintenance of homeostasis of a biological cell. It is experimentally well-known that a cargo move to the nucleus through an alternating intermittent cytoplasmic passive diffusion and mictrotubule-induced active motions. Using a stochastic differential equation that is proven to successfully approximate the dynamic switching between active and passive transport, we add a directed drift motion to our previous numerical model of cargo transport by diffusion. We find that while a combination of active and passive transport leads to higher probability of successful delivery, there is a weaker dependence of transport efficiency on the geometrical properties of the cell when compared to the case of pure diffusion.