Optical velocity control of microtubules driven by kinesin motors

Microtubule gliding on a kinesin-coated surface may be applied as a nanoactuator to manipulate nanoscale materials in a microfluidic environment. However, controlling the velocity and direction of microtubule gliding has been a major challenge for bioengineering. To develop a novel method of molecular manipulation, we propose a technique to control the velocity of gliding microtubules by light irradiance, which mediates the temperature of the assay. To measure the temperature, we integrated a gold-resistive temperature detector with the substrate. After temperature calibration, we measured the relationship between temperature and light irradiance. The results showed that the temperature increased approximately by 10°C by adjusting irradiance from zero to 13.5 W/cm². In the gold area, the velocity of microtubules increased 1.8-fold at an irradiance of 13.5 W/cm².