Quantitative analysis of chloroplast protein targeting

This thesis presents the first use of the Partition of Unity Method in quantifying the spatio-temporal dynamics of a fluorescent protein targeted to the chloroplast twin-arginine translocation pathway. The fluorescence loss in photobleaching technique is applied in a modified fashion to the measurement of substrate mobilities in the chloroplast stroma. Our in vivo results address the two suggested protein targeting mechanisms of membrane-binding before lateral movement to the translocon and direct binding to the translocon. A high performance computing C/C++ implementation of the Partition of Unity Method is used to perform simulations of fluoresence loss in photobleaching and allow a compelling comparison to photobleaching data series. The implementation is both mesh-free and particle-less

Quantitative analysis of chloroplast protein targeting

This thesis presents the first use of the Partition of Unity Method in quantifying the spatio-temporal dynamics of a fluorescent protein targeted to the chloroplast twin-arginine translocation pathway. The fluorescence loss in photobleaching technique is applied in a modified fashion to the measurement of substrate mobilities in the chloroplast stroma. Our in vivo results address the two suggested protein targeting mechanisms of membrane-binding before lateral movement to the translocon and direct binding to the translocon. A high performance computing C/C++ implementation of the Partition of Unity Method is used to perform simulations of fluoresence loss in photobleaching and allow a compelling comparison to photobleaching data series. The implementation is both mesh-free and particle-less.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (EP/C512863/1), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (Great Britain) (BBSRC) (BB/C00437X/1)GBUnited Kingdo

A definition of cellular interface problems

We define a class of cellular interface problems (short: CIP) that mathematically model the exchange of molecules in a compartmentalised living cell. Defining and eventually solving such compartmental problems is important for several reasons. They are needed to understand the organisation of life itself, for example by exploring different 'origin of life' hypothesis based on simple metabolic pathways and their necessary division into one or more compartments. In more complex forms investigating cellular interface problems is a way to understand cellular homeostasis of different types, for example ionic fluxes and their composition between all different cellular compartments. Understanding homeostasis and its collapse is important for many physiological medical applications. This class of models is also necessary to formulate efficiently and in detail complex signalling processes taking place in different cell types, with eukaryotic cells the most complex ones in terms of sophisticated compartmentalisation. We will compare such mathematical models of signalling pathways with rule-based models as formulated in membrane computing in a final discussion. The latter is a theory that investigates computer programmes with the help of biological concepts, like a subroutine exchanging data with the environment, in this case a programme with its global variables