Related papers: The lower bound on the precision of transcriptiona…
The precision of biochemical signaling is limited by randomness in the diffusive arrival of molecules at their targets. For proteins binding to the specific sites on the DNA and regulating transcription, the ability of the proteins to…
To ensure fast gene activation, Transcription Factors (TF) use a mechanism known as facilitated diffusion to find their DNA promoter site. Here we analyze such a process where a TF alternates between 3D and 1D diffusion. In the latter (TF…
We develop revised theoretical ideas on the mechanism by which the transcription factor proteins locate their specific binding sites on DNA faster than the three-dimensional (3D) diffusion controlled rate limit. We demonstrate that the…
There is now a certain consensus that Transcription Factors (TFs) reach their target sites, where they regulate gene transcription, via a mechanism dubbed facilitated diffusion (FD). In FD, the TF cycles between events of 3D-diffusion in…
The diffusion-controlled limit of reaction times for site-specific DNA-binding proteins is derived from first principles. We follow the generally accepted concept that a protein propagates via two competitive modes, a three-dimensional…
In living cells, proteins combine 3D bulk diffusion and 1D sliding along the DNA to reach a target faster. This process is known as facilitated diffusion, and we investigate its dynamics in the physiologically relevant case of confined DNA.…
Cellular responses often require the fast activation or repression of specific genes, which depends on Transcription Factors (TFs) that have to quickly find the promoters of these genes within a large genome. Transcription Factors (TFs)…
Transcription Factors (TFs) are proteins that regulate gene expression. The regulation mechanism is via the binding of a TF to a specific part of the gene associated with it, the TF's target. The target of a specific TF corresponds to a…
Transcription factors perform facilitated diffusion (3D diffusion in the cytosol and 1D diffusion on the DNA) when binding to their target sites to regulate gene expression. Here, we investigated the influence of this binding mechanism on…
A crucial step in the regulation of gene expression is binding of transcription factor (TF) proteins to regulatory sites along the DNA. But transcription factors act at nanomolar concentrations, and noise due to random arrival of these…
It is known since the early days of molecular biology that proteins locate their specific targets on DNA up to two orders of magnitude faster than the Smoluchowski 3D diffusion rate. It was the idea due to Delbruck that they are…
Strong experimental and theoretical evidence shows that transcription factors and other specific DNA-binding proteins find their sites using a two-mode search: alternating between 3D diffusion through the cell and 1D sliding along the DNA.…
Site-specific transcription factors (TFs) bind to their target sites on the DNA, where they regulate the rate at which genes are transcribed. Bacterial TFs undergo facilitated diffusion (a combination of 3D diffusion around and 1D random…
In bacteria, regulatory proteins search for a specific DNA binding target via "facilitated diffusion": a series of rounds of 3D diffusion in the cytoplasm, and 1D linear diffusion along the DNA contour. Using large scale Brownian dynamics…
The most common gene regulation mechanism is when a transcription factor protein binds to a regulatory sequence to increase or decrease RNA transcription. However, transcription factors face two main challenges when searching for these…
Recognition and binding of specific sites on DNA by proteins is central for many cellular functions such as transcription, replication, and recombination. In the process of recognition, a protein rapidly searches for its specific site on a…
The model of facilitated diffusion describes how DNA-binding proteins, such as transcription factors (TFs), find their chromosomal targets by combining 3D diffusion through the cytoplasm and 1D sliding along nonspecific DNA sequences. The…
It has long been asserted that proteins like transcription factors may locate their target in DNA sequences at rates that surpass by several orders of magnitude the three-dimensional diffusion limit thank to facilitated diffusion, that is…
Living cells must control the reading out or "expression" of information encoded in their genomes, and this regulation often is mediated by transcription factors--proteins that bind to DNA and either enhance or repress the expression of…
Transcription factors are able to associate to their binding sites on DNA faster than the physical limit posed by diffusion. Such high association rates can be achieved by alternating between three-dimensional diffusion and one-dimensional…