Modeling Translation in Protein Synthesis with TASEP: A Tutorial and Recent Developments

The phenomenon of protein synthesis has been modeled in terms of totally asymmetric simple exclusion processes (TASEP) since 1968. In this article, we provide a tutorial of the biological and mathematical aspects of this approach. We also summarize several new results, concerned with limited resources in the cell and simple estimates for the current (protein production rate) of a TASEP with inhomogeneous hopping rates, reflecting the characteristics of real genes.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure

Final Progress Report to the Department of Energy's Office of Science on the Committee on Nuclear Physics

The Committee on Nuclear Physics (CNP), under the National Research Council's Board on Physics and Astronomy (BPA), conducted an assessment of the field as part of the BPA's survey of physics in the last decade, titled ''Physics in a New Era.'' The CNP report was published by the National Academy Press in early 1999 under the title ''Nuclear Physics: The Core of Matter, The Fuel of Stars.'