Many transport processes in nature take place on substrates, often considered as unidimensional lanes. These unidimensional substrates are typically nonstatic: Affected by a fluctuating environment, they can undergo conformational changes. This is particularly true in biological cells, where the state of the substrate is often coupled to the active motion of macromolecular complexes, such as motor proteins on microtubules or ribosomes on mRNAs, causing new interesting phenomena. Inspired by biological processes such as protein synthesis by ribosomes and motor protein transport, we introduce the concept of localized dynamical sites coupled to a driven lattice gas dynamics. We investigate the phenomenology of transport in the presence of dynamical defects and find a regime characterized by an intermittent current and subject to severe finite-size effects. Our results demonstrate the impact of the regulatory role of the dynamical defects in transport not only in biology but also in more general contexts.

• Received 7 July 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.87.012705