Cycle kinetic of molecular motors*

The function of molecular motors is based on chemomechanical cycles in which chemical energy is converted into mechanical work. In addition to a main working cycle, these molecular motors often also exhibit additional cycles that correspond to the use of other molecular configurations or to the use of alternative substrates. The former is important, for example, if motors work against high loads, the latter is crucial for information processing motors which have to chose a cognate substrate according to some template. The kinetics of the cycles can be related to the energy consumption and entropy production of the molecular motor. In the talk I will discuss coarse-graining of cycle descriptions of molecular motors, the influence of an opposing force and the level of coarse-graining on the expected entropy production, and the energy cost of accuracy. I will focus on the cytoskeletal motor kinesin and, time permitting, the information-processing motor DNA polymerase.