Effects of Network Morphology in Cargo Transport

We are interested to know how the organization of the cytoskeleton filaments can affect the transport of cargo by motor proteins. Here, we investigate the effects of microtubule network complexity on kinesin mediated cargo transport. We quantify both the network characteristics and the trajectories of single kinesin and kinesin-loaded quantum dot cargos. The network complexity comes from different densities of microtubule intersections and random networks of filaments. These studies will help us understand how motors can intrinsically navigate complex networks of filaments in live cells.