Modeling of the motion of the actin filament on the myosin motility assays

In motility assays, cytoskeletal actin filaments (actin filaments) glide over a surface coated with motor proteins, and the different modes of motion provide a simple measure of the force exerted by the motor proteins (Bourdieu, 1995). Motivated by these experiments, we consider the actin filament as a slender, elastic filament immersed in Stokesian flow, driven by a tangential forcing that mimics the force by the motor proteins. We find qualitative agreement on several points between our analysis and simulations and experimental observations. Furthermore, we study the correlation between filament transport and the characteristics of motion with the spatial pattern of motor protein density.