Related papers: Inherent flexibility determines the transition mec…
Natural proteins fold to a unique, thermodynamically dominant state. Modeling of the folding process and prediction of the native fold of proteins are two major unsolved problems in biophysics. Here, we show successful all-atom ab initio…
We investigate experimentally and theoretically the dynamics of a crack front during the micro-instabilities taking place in heterogeneous materials between two successive equilibrium positions. We focus specifically on the spatio-temporal…
The rupture of the interface joining two materials under frictional contact controls their macroscopic sliding. Interface rupture dynamics depend markedly on the mechanical properties of the bulk materials that bound the frictional…
Though the problem of sequence-reversed protein folding is largely unexplored, one might speculate that reversed native protein sequences should be significantly more foldable than purely random heteropolymer sequences. In this article, we…
Essential life processes take place across multiple space and time scales in living organisms but understanding their mechanistic interactions remains an ongoing challenge. Advanced multiscale modeling techniques are providing new…
The native structures of proteins, except for notable exceptions of intrinsically disordered proteins, in general take their most stable conformation in the physiological condition to maintain their structural framework so that their…
The mechanics of complex soft matter often cannot be understood in the classical physical frame of flexible polymers or rigid rods. The underlying constituents are semiflexible polymers, whose finite bending stiffness ($\kappa$) leads to…
Many of the processes that underly neural computation are carried out by ion channels embedded in the plasma membrane, a two-dimensional liquid that surrounds all cells. Recent experiments have demonstrated that this membrane is poised…
The rigidity and flexibility of homologous psychrophilic(P), mesophilic(M) and thermophilic(T) proteins have been investigated at the global and local levels in terms of packing factor and atomic fluctuations obtained from B-factors. For…
The cytoskeleton of eukaryotic cells provides mechanical support and governs intracellular transport. These functions rely on the complex mechanical properties of networks of semiflexible protein filaments. Recent theoretical interest has…
Understanding cellular response to mechanical forces is immensely important for a plethora of biological processes. Focal adhesions are multi-molecular protein assemblies that connect the cell to the extracellular matrix and play a pivotal…
We study the effect of membrane proteins on the shape, composition and thermodynamic stability of the surrounding membrane. When the coupling between membrane composition and curvature is strong enough the nearby composition and shape both…
Allosteric transcription factors undergo binding events both at their inducer binding sites as well as at distinct DNA binding domains, and it is often difficult to disentangle the structural and functional consequences of these two classes…
Understanding the relationship between protein sequence, function, and stability is a fundamental problem in biology. While high-throughput methods have produced large numbers of sequence-function pairs, functional assays do not distinguish…
During interphase, a typical cell nucleus features spatial compartmentalization of transcriptionally active euchromatin and repressed heterochromatin domains. In conventional nuclear organization, euchromatin predominantly occupies the…
Scales engagement can contribute significantly to nonlinear bending behavior of elastic substrates with rigid biomimetic scales. In this letter, we investigate the role of friction in modulating the nonlinearity that arises due to…
The extent of coupling between the folding of a protein and its binding to a substrate varies from protein to protein. Some proteins have highly structured native states in solution, while others are natively disordered and only fold fully…
Recent experimental results suggest that the native fold, or topology, plays a primary role in determining the structure of the transition state ensemble, at least for small fast folding proteins. To investigate the extent of the…
Recent experiments have demonstrated that the nonlinear elasticity of in vitro networks of the biopolymer actin is dramatically altered in the presence of a flexible cross-linker such as the abundant cytoskeletal protein filamin. The basic…
Hydrogen-related fracture in body-centered cubic Fe and ferritic steels often appears as transgranular quasi-cleavage rather than purely intergranular failure, especially at low to moderate hydrogen contents. Fractography has suggested that…