Crosslinking protein attachment and detachment

Finally, the crosslinking proteins can attach to and detach from the MTs, so their total number N(t) changes in time. In every small time interval ∆t, a new crosslinking protein can attach to both MTs with probability k_onN₀∆t, where N₀(y) is the effective number of crosslinking proteins in the nucleoplasm that takes into account the energy of their stretching (see Eq. (15) below). Alternatively, an already attached crosslinking protein can detach with the probability k_offN∆t. The constants k_on and k_off are the attachment and detachment rates, respectively. It is important to note that the crosslinking protein indices i = {1, .., N} have to change to account for the attachment or detachment events every time they occur.