Related papers: Modeling Protein Diffusion Across ER-Nuclear Envel…
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a dynamic network of interconnected sheets and tubules that orchestrates the distribution of lipids, ions, and proteins throughout the cell. The impact of its complex, dynamic morphology on its function as…
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER), a cellular organelle that forms a cell-spanning network of tubes and sheets, is an important location of protein synthesis and folding. When the ER experiences sustained unfolded protein stress, IRE1 proteins…
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a network of sheet-like and tubular structures that spans much of a cell and contains molecules undergoing diffusive searches for targets, such as unfolded proteins searching for chaperones and…
Recent work has shown an increasing interest in understanding the structure of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and how ribosomes are displayed on it. Here we present a model that explains a physical reason for why the cell creates different…
Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are very selective filters that monitor the transport between the cytoplasm and the nucleoplasm. Two models have been suggested for the plug of the NPC. They are (i) it is a reversible hydrogel or (ii) it is a…
Electron transfer (ET) through proteins, a fundamental element of many biochemical reactions, has been studied intensively in solution. We report the results of electron transport (ETp) measurements across proteins, sandwiched between two…
We introduce a novel model, comprising self-avoiding surfaces and incorporating edges and tubules, that is designed to characterize the structural morphologies and transitions observed within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). By employing…
Intercellular signaling has an important role in organism development, but not all communication occurs using the same mechanism. Here, we analyze the energy efficiency of intercellular signaling by two canonical mechanisms: diffusion of…
The nuclear pore supports molecular communication between cytoplasm and nucleus in eukaryotic cells. Selective transport of proteins is mediated by soluble receptors, whose regulation by the small GTPase Ran leads to cargo accumulation in,…
The elastic network (EN) is a prime model that describes the long-time dynamics of biomolecules. However, the use of harmonic potentials renders this model insufficient for studying large conformational changes of proteins (e.g. stretching…
Resonant Energy Transfer (RET) from an optically excited donor molecule (D) to a non-excited acceptor molecule (A) residing nearby is widely used to detect molecular interactions in living cells. Stoichiometric information, such as the…
Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) mediate the exchange of materials between the nucleoplasm and cytoplasm, playing a key role in the separation of nucleic acids and proteins into their required compartments. The static structure of the NPC is…
Cellular membranes are elastic lipid bilayers that contain a variety of proteins, including ion channels, receptors, and scaffolding proteins. These proteins are known to diffuse in the plane of the membrane and to influence the bending of…
Protein chains of the (FG)$_n$ ($n \simeq$ 300) type cap the cytoplasmatic side of the nucleopore complex, which connects the nucleus to the remainder of an eukaryotic cell. We study the properties of three fundamental polymer models that…
Emerin, a nuclear membrane protein with important biological roles in mechanotransduction and nuclear shape adaptation, self-assembles into nanometer-size domains at the inner nuclear membrane. The size and emerin occupancy of these…
The transport of an infinitely thin, hard rod in a random, dense array of point obstacles is investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. Our model mimics the sterically hindered dynamics in dense needle liquids. The center-of-mass…
A theory of electrical transport through molecular wires is used to estimate the electronic factor in the intramolecular electron transfer (ET) in porphyrin-nitrobenzene supermolecules, and to analyze its structure. The chosen molecules…
While solid-state protein junctions have shown efficient electron transport over lengths that surpass those of conventional organic semiconducting systems, interfacial or contact effects may obscure the intrinsic protein charge transport…
Translation is one of the main steps in the synthesis of proteins. It consists of ribosomes that translate sequences of nucleotides encoded on mRNA into polypeptide sequences of amino acids. Ribosomes bound to mRNA move unidirectionally,…
The interplay of membrane proteins is vital for many biological processes, such as cellular transport, cell division, and signal transduction between nerve cells. Theoretical considerations have led to the idea that the membrane itself…