Complex movements of motor protein relay helices during the power stroke

Abstract

We use the Toda soliton formalism to propose a possible complex movement of α helices with a very important role in energy transduction during the power stroke of motor proteins. We find that this approach has advantages in comparison with the Davydov soliton model and its variants. We estimated the model's parameters and calculated corresponding properties of the predicted solitary waves including propagation velocities and energies. The energies are found to be within the expected range. © 2006 The American Physical Society.