Controlling the mesoscopic motion of diffusive molecular motors by molecular means

The spatio-temporal dynamics of molecular motors and the potential of its control are studied on the basis of a spatially dependent Fokker–Planck model. The model considers spatially inhomogeneous excitation coupling the energetic sublevels of the molecules as well as dynamic spatial fluctuations and diffusion. Simulations show that both the spatio-temporal noise in the molecular properties and the spatio-temporal excitation set an upper limit to the efficiency of the motor progression. Moreover, a sufficiently small molecular diffusion, as well as a thorough adjustment of transition rates, leads to a regular forward propagation while for high diffusion and improperly chosen rates spatio-temporally diverging particle distributions may evolve. Suitable excitation conditions for efficient movement control are identified.