Cooperative dynamics in bidirectional transport on flexible lattice

Abstract

Several theoretical models based on totally asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP) have been extensively utilized to study various non-equilibrium transport phenomena. Inspired by the the role of microtubule-transported vesicles in intracellular transport, we propose a generalized TASEP model, where two distinct particles are directed to hop stochastically in opposite directions on a flexible lattice immersed in a three dimensional pool of diffusing particles. We investigate the interplay between lattice conformation and bidirectional transport by obtaining the stationary phase diagrams and density profiles within the framework of mean field theory. For the case when configuration of flexible lattice is independent of particle density on lattice, the phase diagram only differs quantitatively in comparison to that obtained for bidirectional transport on rigid lattice. However, if the lattice occupancy governs the global conformation of lattice, in addition to the pre-existing phases for bidirectional transport a new asymmetric shock-low density phase originates in the system. We identified that this phase is sensitive to finite size effect and vanishes in the thermodynamic limit.