Subcellular Processes
Hydrogen cations, or protons, provide the medium by which energy is stored and converted in biological systems. Such pre-eminence relies on the interplay between interfacial and bulk chemical transformations, according to mechanisms that…
Under certain cellular conditions, transcription and mRNA translation in prokaryotes appear to be "coupled," in which the formation of mRNA transcript and production of its associated protein are temporally correlated. Such…
Cellular actin structures are continuously turned over while keeping similar sizes. Since they all compete for a shared pool of actin monomers, the question arises how they can coexist in these dynamic steady states. Recently, the…
Cancer cells are often seen to prefer glycolytic metabolism over oxidative phosphorylation even in the presence of oxygen-a phenomenon termed the Warburg effect. Despite significant strides in the decades since its discovery, a clear basis…
Cells of diatoms and related algae with complex plastids of red algal origin are highly compartmentalized. These plastids are surrounded by four envelope membranes, which also define the periplastidic compartment (PPC), the space between…
Delay is an inherent feature of genetic regulatory networks. It represents the time required for the assembly of functional regulator proteins. The protein production process is complex, as it includes transcription, translocation,…
Biomolecular condensates form on timescales of seconds in cells upon environmental or compositional changes. Condensate formation is thus argued to act as a mechanism for sensing such changes and quickly initiating downstream processes,…
In a 2018 paper and a subsequent article published in 2023, researchers reported that mitochondria maintain temperatures 10-15 degrees celsius higher than the surrounding cytoplasm - a finding that deviates by 5 to 6 orders of magnitude…
For the canonical two-state model of transcription, we derive exact analytic expressions for the entropy production rate of transcription at steady state, and assess detailed balance breaking in transcription. Our analytics allow us to…
Biological information processing often arises from mesoscopic molecular systems operating far from equilibrium, yet their complexity can make the underlying principles difficult to visualize. In this study, we introduce a macroscopic…
In molecular communications (MC), inter-symbol interference (ISI) and noise are key factors that degrade communication reliability. Although time-domain equalization can effectively mitigate these effects, it often entails high…
mRNA-protein assemblies play a fundamental role in forming membraneless compartments within cells, whose functions may include activating, inhibiting, and localizing reactions. Recruitment of proteins into droplets can diminish cell to cell…
We study the dynamics of molecular motor-driven transport into dendritic spines, which are bulbous intracellular compartments in neurons that play a key role in transmitting signals between neurons. We further develop a stochastic model of…
Aims. Resistance to targeted therapies remains a major challenge in EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Here, we describe a novel metabolic adaptation in osimertinib-resistant cells characterized by elevated acetate levels and…
Living cells sense noisy biochemical signals crucial for survival, yet models incorporating intracellular signaling are limited. This study examines how cells sense chemotactic concentrations through phosphorylation readouts in Ca2+…
Microtubule (MT) radial arrays or asters establish the internal topology of a cell by interacting with organelles and molecular motors. We proceed to understand the general pattern forming potential of aster-motor systems using a…
Ribosome-targeting antibiotics, such as chloramphenicol, stall elongating ribosomes during protein synthesis, disrupting mRNA translation. These antibiotic-induced pauses occur stochastically, alter collective ribosome dynamics and…
BACKGROUND: Primary aldosteronism is the most common form of secondary hypertension. The most frequent genetic cause of aldosterone-producing adenomas is somatic mutations in the potassium channel KCNJ5. They affect the ion selectivity of…
Accurate regulation of calcium release is essential for cellular signaling, with the spatial distribution of ryanodine receptors (RyRs) playing a critical role. In this study, we present a nonlinear spatial network model that simulates RyR…
The mitotic spindle partitions chromosomes during cell division by connecting the poles to kinetochores through microtubules (MTs). Their plus-ends, facing the chromosomes, exhibit dynamic instability, which is critical for proper…