The complexity of microtubule-based motility*

The tug of war between multiple molecular motors driving the same cargo can take many forms and result in many observable motility phenotypes. I will discuss some of the relevant cases, from movement across microtubule intersections to a minimal tug of war system on a single microtubule. I will show that the overall range of behaviors is remarkable large and in particular that cargos can remain in a tug of war state for extremely long times and that this has significant implications for both cargo routing in cells and for our ability to tell tug of war processes from other pathways to immotility such as diffusion. Finally, I will discuss viable approaches for identifying tug of war in biological systems.