Related papers: Real sequence effects on the search dynamics of tr…
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)…
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…
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…
Transcription factor (TF) molecules translocate by facilitated diffusion (a combination of 3D diffusion around and 1D random walk on the DNA). Despite the attention this mechanism received in the last 40 years, only a few studies…
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…
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 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…
Surviving in a diverse environment requires corresponding organism responses. At the cellular level, such adjustment relies on the transcription factors (TFs) which must rapidly find their target sequences amidst a vast amount of…
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.…
Under dilute in vitro conditions transcription factors rapidly locate their target sequence on DNA by using the facilitated diffusion mechanism. However, whether this strategy of alternating between three-dimensional bulk diffusion and…
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…
Response time and transcription level are vital parameters of gene regulation. They depend on how fast transcription factors (TFs) find and how efficient they occupy their specific target sites. It is well known that target site search is…
Some proteins can find their targets on DNA faster than by pure diffusion in the three-dimensional cytoplasm, through the process of facilitated diffusion: They can loosely bind to DNA and temporarily slide along it, thus being guided by…
Several important biological processes are initiated by the binding of a protein to a specific site on the DNA. The strategy adopted by a protein, called transcription factor (TF), for searching its specific binding site on the DNA has been…
We study a model for a protein searching for a target, using facilitated diffusion, on a DNA molecule confined in a finite volume. The model includes three distinct pathways for facilitated diffusion: (a) sliding - in which the protein…
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…
Transcription factors (TFs) exert their regulatory action by binding to DNA with specific sequence preferences. However, different TFs can partially share their binding sequences due to their common evolutionary origin. This `redundancy' of…
Transcription factors (TFs) are key regulators of gene expression. Based on the classical scenario in which the TF search process switches between one-dimensional motion along the DNA molecule and free Brownian motion in the nucleus, we…
Genome-wide experiments to map the DNA-binding locations of transcription-associated factors (TFs) have shown that the number of genes bound by a TF far exceeds the number of possible direct target genes. Distinguishing functional from…
We introduce a probabilistic model for protein sliding motion along DNA during the search of a target sequence. The model accounts for possible effects due to sequence-dependent interaction between the nonspecific DNA and the protein. As an…