Related papers: RNA polymerase motors: dwell time distribution, ve…
The mechanism and driving forces of chromosome segregation in the bacterial cell cycle of E. coli is one of the least understood events in its life cycle. Using principles of entropic repulsion between polymer loops confined in a cylinder,…
Synthetic methods to control the structure of materials at sub-micron scales are typically based on the self-assembly of structural building blocks with precise size and morphology. On the other hand, many living systems can generate…
mRNA translation is a crucial process that leads to protein synthesis in living cells. Therefore, it is a process that needs to work optimally for a cell to stay healthy and alive. With advancements in microscopy and novel experimental…
We study a class of micromanipulation experiments, exemplified by the pulling apart of the two strands of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). When the pulling force is increased to a critical value, an ``unzipping'' transition occurs. For random…
Although RNAs play many cellular functions little is known about the dynamics and thermodynamics of these molecules. In principle, all-atom molecular dynamics simulations can investigate these issues, but with current computer facilities,…
Gene transcription mediated by RNA polymerase II (pol-II) is a key step in gene expression. The dynamics of pol-II moving along the transcribed region influence the rate and timing of gene expression. In this work we present a probabilistic…
The process of RNA base fraying (i.e. the transient opening of the termini of a helix) is involved in many aspects of RNA dynamics. We here use molecular dynamics simulations and Markov state models to characterize the kinetics of RNA…
We review statistical-mechanical theories of single-molecule micromanipulation experiments on nucleic acids. First, models for describing polymer elasticity are introduced. We then review how these models are used to interpret…
In this manuscript we propose a mathematical framework to couple transcription and translation in which mRNA production is described by a set of master equations while the dynamics of protein density is governed by a random differential…
Polymer translocation through a nanopore in a membrane investigated theoretically. Recent experiments on voltage-driven DNA and RNA translocations through a nanopore indicate that the size and geometry of the pore are important factors in…
The formation of DNA loops by proteins and protein complexes that bind at distal DNA sites plays a central role in many cellular processes, such as transcription, recombination, and replication. Here we review the basic thermodynamic…
We develop a stochastic model for the programmed frameshift of ribosomes synthesizing a protein while moving along a mRNA template. Normally the reading frame of a ribosome decodes successive triplets of nucleotides on the mRNA in a…
Protein synthesis is one of the most fundamental biological processes, which consumes a significant amount of cellular resources. Despite existence of multiple mathematical models of translation, varying in the level of mechanistical…
Processive molecular motors take more-or-less uniformly sized steps, along spatially periodic tracks, mostly forwards but increasingly backwards under loads. Experimentally, the major steps can be resolved clearly within the noise but one…
One-dimensional hopping model is useful to describe the motion of microscopic particle in thermal noise environment, such as motor proteins. Recent experiments about the new generation of light-driven rotary molecular motors found that, the…
Two headed motor proteins, such as kinesin and dynein, hidrolyze environmental ATP in order to propel unidirectionally along cytoskeletal filaments such as microtubules. In the case of kinesin, protein heads bind primarily on the alpha…
Molecular motor proteins form the basis of cellular dynamics. Recently, notable efforts have led to the creation of their DNA-based mimics, which can carry out complex nanoscale motion. However, such functional analogues have not yet been…
A simple model of DNA based on two interacting polymers has been used to study the unzipping of a double stranded DNA subjected to a periodic force. We propose a dynamical transition, where without changing the physiological condition, it…
We study the first passage time for a polymer, that we call the narrow encounter time (NETP), to reach a small target located on the surface of a microdomain. The polymer is modeled as a Freely Joint Chain (beads connected by springs with a…
We study the motion of long polymers (eg DNA) in a gel under the influence of an external force acting locally on small segments of the polymer. In particular, we examine the dependence of the drift velocity on the position where the force…