Related papers: Architecture and Function of Mechanosensitive Memb…
We propose that protein loops can be interpreted as topological domain-wall solitons. They interpolate between ground states that are the secondary structures like alpha-helices and beta-strands. Entire proteins can then be folded simply by…
Analytic estimates for the forces and free energy generated by bilayer deformation reveal a compelling and intuitive model for MscL channel gating analogous to the nucleation of a second phase. We argue that the competition between…
We theoretically investigate the dynamics of a floating lipid bilayer membrane coupled with a two-dimensional cytoskeleton network, taking into explicitly account the intermonolayer friction, the discrete lattice structure of the…
An ensemble of directed macromolecules on a lattice is considered, where the constituting molecules are chosen as a random sequence of N different types. The same type of molecules experiences a hard-core (exclusion) interaction. We study…
The adhesion of biomembranes is mediated by the binding of membrane-anchored receptor and ligand proteins. The proteins can only bind if the separation between apposing membranes is sufficiently close to the length of the protein complexes,…
Proteins are the basic building blocks of life. They usually perform functions by folding to a particular structure. Understanding the folding process could help the researchers to understand the functions of proteins and could also help to…
Membrane proteins and lipids can self-assemble into membrane protein polyhedral nanoparticles (MPPNs). MPPNs have a closed spherical surface and a polyhedral protein arrangement, and may offer a new route for structure determination of…
The actin cortex of an animal cell is a thin polymeric layer attached to the inner side of the plasma membrane. It plays a key role in shape regulation and pattern formation on the cellular and tissue scale and, in particular, generates the…
Cells self-organize into functional, ordered structures during tissue morphogenesis, a process that is evocative of colloidal self-assembly into engineered soft materials. Understanding how inter-cellular mechanical interactions may drive…
Native extracellular matrices (ECMs), such as those of the human brain and other neural tissues, exhibit networks of molecular interactions between specific matrix proteins and other tissue components. Guided by these naturally…
A grand canonical Monte Carlo (MC) algorithm is presented for studying the lattice gas model (LGM) of multiple protein sequence alignment, which coherently combines long-range interactions and variable-length insertions. MC simulations are…
We investigate membrane-mediated interactions between transmembrane proteins using coarse-grained models. We compare the effective potential of mean force (PMF) between two proteins, which are always aligned parallel to the z-axis of the…
Cell adhesion proteins typically form stable clusters that anchor the cell membrane to its environment. Several works have suggested that cell membrane protein clusters can emerge from a local feedback between the membrane curvature and the…
The dynamics of many macromolecular machines is characterized by chemically-mediated structural changes that achieve large scale functional deployment through local rearrangements of constitutive protein sub-units. Motivated by recent high…
Most of the current understanding of structure-property relations at the molecular and the supramolecular scales can be formulated in terms of the stability of and the interactions between a limited number of recurring structural motifs…
Theory of multi-dimensional representation of free energy surface of protein folding is developed by adopting structural order parameters of multiple regions in protein as multiple coordinates. Various scenarios of folding are classified in…
The functionality of proteins is related to their structure in the native state. Protein structures are made up of emergent building blocks of helices and almost planar sheets. A simple coarse-grained geometrical model of a flexible tube…
Microtubules and motor proteins are building blocks of self-organized subcellular biological structures such as the mitotic spindle and the centrosomal microtubule array. These same ingredients can form new "bioactive" liquid-crystalline…
Chemotaxis receptors in E. coli form clusters at the cell poles and also laterally along the cell body, and this clustering plays an important role in signal transduction. Recently, experiments using flourrescence imaging have shown that,…
Recent advances in high-resolution experimental methods have highlighted the significance of cell signal pathway crosstalk and localised signalling activity in the development and disease of numerous biological systems. The investigation of…