Practice problem
Kinesins and Dyneins
Kinesins can step forward at a rate of . The longest cell in the human body is a nerve cell whose axon stretches down the length of your leg, about . How long does it take for vesicles carrying molecular cargo to be shuttled by active kinesin-driven transport from the cell body to the tip of the axon? How long would it take for a typical protein (diffusion constant ) to diffuse over the length of that axon? Assume that the mean squared distance travelled by diffusion over time is .