Related papers: Flagellar length control in biflagellate eukaryote…
Short-range interactions and long-range contacts drive the 3D folding of structured proteins. The proteins' structure has a direct impact on their biological function. However, nearly 40% of the eukaryotes proteome is composed of…
Understanding complex biological macromolecules, especially proteins, is vital for grasping their diverse chemical functions with direct impact in biology and pharmacology. While techniques like X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron…
Intracellular components explore the cytoplasm via active motor-driven transport in conjunction with passive diffusion. We model the motion of organelles in narrow tubular cells using analytical techniques and numerical simulations to study…
Many types of bacteria swim by rotating a bundle of helical filaments also called flagella. Each filament is driven by a rotary motor and a very flexible hook transmits the motor torque to the filament. We model it by discretizing…
The bacterial flagellar motor (BFM) is a rotary molecular machine driven by the ion electrochemical potential across the cell membrane. Recent cryo-EM structures reveal a cogwheel-like architecture in which multiple stators engage a large…
Many native structures of proteins accomodate complex topological motifs such as knots, lassos, and other geometrical entanglements. How proteins can fold quickly even in the presence of such topological obstacles is a debated question in…
The bacterial flagellar motor is an ion-powered transmembrane protein complex which drives swimming in many bacterial species. The motor consists of a cytoplasmic 'rotor' ring and a number of 'stator' units, which are bound to the cell wall…
Intracellular processes often rely on the timely encounter of mobile reaction partners, including intermittently motor-driven organelles. The underlying cytoskeletal network presents a complex landscape that both directs particle movement…
The mechanical deformability of single cells is an important indicator for various diseases such as cancer, blood diseases and inflammation. Lab-on-a-chip devices allow to separate such cells from healthy cells using hydrodynamic forces. We…
Assemblies of ring DNA and proteins, such as kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) and the chainmail-like network of the HK97 bacteriophage capsid, form "Olympic" topologies that govern the dynamics of gene-regulatory proteins, cellular metabolites, and…
Motile cilia drive biological fluid transport through whip-like beating motions that synchronize into metachronal waves. The lengths of these cilia span three orders of magnitude, from microns in human airways to millimeters in ctenophores.…
Motile eukaryotic cells propel themselves in viscous fluids by passing waves of bending deformation down their flagella. An infinitely long flagellum achieves a hydrodynamically optimal low-Reynolds number locomotion when the angle between…
Early olfactory pathway responses to the presentation of an odor exhibit remarkably similar dynamical behavior across phyla from insects to mammals, and frequently involve transitions among quiescence, collective network oscillations, and…
Left-right axis specification establishes embryonic laterality through asymmetric signaling cascades originating at the cellular scale. We previously reported the presence of a directionality bias in confined pairs of endothelial (and…
To swim through a viscous fluid, a flagellated bacterium must overcome the fluid drag on its body by rotating a flagellum or a bundle of multiple flagella. Because the drag increases with the size of bacteria, it is expected theoretically…
Eukaryotic swimming cells such as spermatozoa, algae or protozoa use flagella or cilia to move in viscous fluids. The motion of their flexible appendages in the surrounding fluid induces propulsive forces that balance with the viscous drag…
Under certain cellular conditions, transcription and mRNA translation in prokaryotes appear to be "coupled," in which the formation of mRNA transcript and production of its associated protein are temporally correlated. Such…
Biofilament-motor protein complexes are ubiquitous in biology and drive the transport of cargo vital for many fundamental cellular processes. As they move, motor proteins exert compressive forces on the filaments to which they are attached,…
Cilia and flagella are essential building blocks for biological fluid transport and locomotion at the micron scale. They often beat in synchrony and may transition between different synchronization modes in the same cell type. Here, we…
Based on dynamical density functional theory (DDFT) we consider a non-equilibrium system of interacting colloidal particles driven by a constant tilting force through a periodic, symmetric "washboard" potential. We demonstrate that, despite…