The movement of actin–myosin biomolecular linear motor under AC electric fields: An experimental study

The role of actin–myosin as a biomolecular linear motor is considered a transport system at nanoscale because of their size, efficiency and functionality. To utilize the ability to transport, it is essential to control the random movement of actin filaments (F-actin) on myosin coated substrate. In the presence of an alternating current (AC) electric field, the direction of F-actin movement is regulated by electro-orientation torque and, as a result, its movement is perpendicularly toward the electrode edges. Our data confirm such aligned movement is proportional to the strength of applied electric field. Interestingly, the aligned movement is found frequency-dependent and the electrothermal effect is observed by means of the velocity measurement of aligned F-actin movement. The findings in this study may provide constructive information for manipulating actin–myosin nanotransport system to build functional nanodevices in future work.

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► F-actin movement on HMM coated surface is regulated by electro-orientation torque.
► The aligned movement is proportional to the strength of applied electric field.
► The aligned movement is frequency-dependent.
► The electrothermal effect is observed by means of F-actin velocity measurement.