Abstract
We present a quasi-steady state reduction of a linear reaction-hyperbolic master equation describing the directed intermittent search for a hidden target by a motor-driven particle moving on a one-dimensional filament track. The particle is injected at one end of the track and randomly switches between stationary search phases and mobile nonsearch phases that are biased in the anterograde direction. There is a finite possibility that the particle fails to find the target due to an absorbing boundary at the other end of the track. Such a scenario is exemplified by the motor-driven transport of vesicular cargo to synaptic targets located on the axon or dendrites of a neuron. The reduced model is described by a scalar Fokker–Planck (FP) equation, which has an additional inhomogeneous decay term that takes into account absorption by the target. The FP equation is used to compute the probability of finding the hidden target (hitting probability) and the corresponding conditional mean first passage time (MFPT) in terms of the effective drift velocity V, diffusivity D, and target absorption rate λ of the random search. The quasi-steady state reduction determines V, D, and λ in terms of the various biophysical parameters of the underlying motor transport model. We first apply our analysis to a simple 3-state model and show that our quasi-steady state reduction yields results that are in excellent agreement with Monte Carlo simulations of the full system under physiologically reasonable conditions. We then consider a more complex multiple motor model of bidirectional transport, in which opposing motors compete in a “tug-of-war”, and use this to explore how ATP concentration might regulate the delivery of cargo to synaptic targets.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baas, P.W., Deitch, J.S., Black, M.M., Banker, G.A., 1988. Polarity orientation of microtubules in hippocampal neurons: uniformity in the axon and nonuniformity in the dendrite. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85, 8335–8339.
Bannai, H., Inoue, T., Nakayama, T., Hattori, M., Mikoshiba, K., 2004. Kinesin dependent, rapid bidirectional transport of ER sub-compartment in dendrites of hippocampal neurons. J. Cell Sci. 117, 163–175.
Bean, A.J. (Ed.), 2007. Protein Trafficking in Neurons. Academic Press, San Diego.
Bell, J.W., 1991. Searching Behaviour, the Behavioural Ecology of Finding Resources. Chapman and Hall, London.
Benichou, O., Coppey, M., Moreau, M., Suet, P., Voituriez, R., 2005. Optimal search strategies for hidden targets. Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 198101.
Benichou, O., Loverdo, C., Moreau, M., Voituriez, R., 2007. A minimal model of intermittent search in dimension two. J. Phys. A 19, 065141.
Berg, O.G., Winter, R.B., von Hippel, P.H., 1981. Diffusion-driven mechanisms of protein translocation on nucleic acids. 1. Models and theory. Biochemistry 20, 6929–6948.
Bramham, C.R., Wells, D.G., 2007. Dendritic mRNA: transport, translation and function. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 8, 776–789.
Bressloff, P., Newby, J., 2009. Directed intermittent search for hidden targets. New J. Phys. 11, 023033.
Brooks, E., 1999. Probabilistic methods for a linear reaction-hyperbolic system with constant coefficients. Ann. Appl. Probab. 9, 719–731.
Brown, A., 2000. Slow axonal transport: stop and go traffic in the axon. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 1, 153–156.
De Vos, K.J., Grierson, A.J., Ackerley, S., Miller, C.C.J., 2008. Role of axonal transport in neurodegenerative diseases. Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 31, 151–173.
Dynes, J., Steward, O., 2007. Dynamics of bidirectional transport of ARC mRNA in neuronal dendrites. J. Comput. Neurol. 500, 433–447.
Friedman, A., Craciun, G., 2006. Approximate traveling waves in linear reaction-hyperbolic equations. SIAM J. Math. Anal. 38, 741–758.
Friedman, A., Hu, B., 2007. Uniform convergence for approximate traveling waves in linear reaction-hyperbolic systems. Indiana Univ. Math. J. 56, 2133–2158.
Gardiner, C.W., 2004. Handbook of Stochastic Methods for Physics, Chemistry, and the Natural Sciences, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin.
Goldstein, A.Y.N., Wang, X., Schwarz, T.L., 2008. Axonal transport and the delivery of pre-synaptic components. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 18, 495–503.
Halford, S.E., Marko, J.F., 2004. How do site-specific DNA-binding proteins find their targets? Nucl. Acid Res. 32, 3040–3052.
Hirokawa, N., Takemura, R., 2005. Molecular motors and mechanisms of directional transport in neurons. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 6, 201–214.
Howard, J., 2001. Mechanics of Motor Proteins and the Cytoskeleton. Sianuer, Sunderland.
Kelleher, R.L., Govindarajan, A., Tonegawa, S., 2004. Translational regulatory mechanisms review in persistent forms of synaptic plasticity. Neuron 44, 59–73.
Kennedy, M.J., Ehlers, M.D., 2006. Organelles and trafficking machinery for postsynaptic plasticity. Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 29, 2325–2362.
Knowles, R., Sabry, J., Martone, M., Deerinck, T., Ellisman, M., Bassell, G., Kosik, K., 1996. Translocation of RNA granules in living neurons. J. Neurosci. 16, 7812–7820.
Kural, C., Ki, H., Syed, S.D., Goshima, G., Gelfand, V.I., Selvin, P.R., 2005. Kinesin and Dynein move a peroxisome in vivo: a tug-of-war or coordinated movement. Science 308, 1469–1472.
Lamprecht, R., LeDoux, J., 2004. Structural plasticity and memory. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 5, 45–54.
Liepelt, S., Lipowsky, R., 2007. Kinesin’s network of chemomechanical motor cycles. Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 258102.
Loverdo, C., Benichou, O., Moreau, M., Voituriez, R., 2008. Enhanced reaction kinetics in biological cells. Natl. Phys. 4, 134–137.
Mattson, M.P., Gleichmann, M., Cheng, A., 2008. Mitochondria in neuroplasticity and neurological disorders. Neuron 60, 748–766.
Miller, K.E., Sheetz, M.P., 2004. Axonal mitochondrial transport and potential are correlated. J. Cell Sci. 117, 2791–2804.
Morris, R.L., Hollenbeck, P.J., 1993. The regulation of bidirectional mitochondrial transport is coordinated with axonal outgrowth. J. Cell Sci. 104, 917–927.
Mueller, M.J.I., Klumpp, S., Lipowsky, R., 2008. Tug-of-war as a cooperative mechanism for bidirectional cargo transport by molecular motors. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105, 4609–4614.
Nakata, T., Terada, S., Hirokawa, N., 1998. Visualization of the dynamics of synaptic vesicle and plasma membrane proteins in living axons. J. Cell Biol. 160, 659–674.
Newby, J., Bressloff, P.C., 2009. Directed intermittent search for a hidden target on a dendritic tree. Phys. Rev. E 80, 021913.
Puthasnveettil, S.V., Monje, F.J., Miniaci, M.C., Choi, Y.-B., Karl, K.A., Khandros, E., Gawinowicz, M.A., Sheetz, M.P., Kandel, E.R., 2008. A new component in synaptic plasticity: upregulation of kinesin in the neurons of the gill-withdrwal reflex. Cell 135, 960–973.
Redner, S., 2001. A Guide to First Passage Time Processes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Reed, M.C., Venakides, S., Blum, J.J., 1990. Approximate traveling waves in linear reaction-hyperbolic equations. SIAM J. Appl. Math. 50, 167–180.
Rook, M.S., Lu, M., Kosik, K.S., 2000. CaMKIIα 3′ untranslated regions-directed mRNA translocation in living neurons: Visualization by GFP linkage. J. Neurosci. 20, 6385–6393.
Schnitzer, M.J., Visscher, K., Block, S.M., 2000. Force production by single kinesin motors. Nat. Cell. Biol. 2, 718.
Stokin, G.B., Goldstein, L.S.B., 2006. Axonal transport and Alzheimer’s disease. Annu. Rev. Biochem. 75, 607–627.
Sutton, M.A., Schuman, E.M., 2006. Dendritic protein synthesis, synaptic plasticity, and memory. Cell 127, 49–58.
Vale, R.D., 2003. The molecular motor toolbox for intracellular transport. Cell 112, 467–480.
Visscher, K., Block, S.M., 1999. Single kinesin molecules studied with a molecular force clamp. Nature 400, 184.
Viswanathan, G.M., Buldyrev, S.V., Havlin, S., da Luz, M.G.E., Raposo, E.P., Stanley, H.E., 1999. Optimizing the success of random searches. Nature 401, 911–914.
Waites, C., Craig, A., Garner, C., 2005. Mechanisms of vertebrate synaptogenesis. Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 28, 251–274.
Washbourne, P., Liu, X.-B., Jones, E.G., McAllister, A.K., 2004. Cycling of NMDA receptors during trafficking in neurons before synapse formation. J. Neurosci. 24, 8253–8264.
Welte, M.A., 2004. Bidirectional transport along microtubules. Curr. Biol. 14, 525.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Newby, J.M., Bressloff, P.C. Quasi-steady State Reduction of Molecular Motor-Based Models of Directed Intermittent Search. Bull. Math. Biol. 72, 1840–1866 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538-010-9513-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538-010-9513-8