Mechanics of Motor Proteins and the Cytoskeleton Paperback - 2001

This book is for biology, physics, and engineering students who want to learn about the principles of protein mechanics and how it applies to the morphology and motility of cells. Understanding how motors and the cytoskeleton operate requires mechanical concepts such as force, elasticity, damping, and work. Introductory physics textbooks address these concepts, yet they are concerned primarily with macroscopic systems, whose motions are qualitatively different from the highly damped, diffusive motion of individual molecules.

Mechanics of Motor Proteins and the Cytoskeleton provides a physical foundation for molecular mechanics. Part I explains how small particles like proteins respond to mechanical, thermal, and chemical forces, Part II focuses on cytoskeletal filaments, and Part III focuses on motor proteins. The treatments are unified in the respect that they are organized around principles rather than proteins: chapters are centered on topics such as structure, chemistry, and mechanics, and different filaments or motors are discussed together.

The book assumes a rudimentary knowledge of cell biology as well as freshman physics, though all concepts are introduced from first principles, and numerous boxed examples and figures aid the non-mathematical reader. For the mathematically inclined, detailed proofs of important results are included in the Appendix.