Force generation in small ensembles of Brownian motors

The motility of certain gram-negative bacteria is mediated by retraction of type IV pili surface filaments, which are essential for infectivity. The retraction is powered by a strong molecular motor protein, PilT, producing very high forces that can exceed 150 pN. The molecular details of the motor mechanism are still largely unknown, while other features have been identified, such as the ring-shaped protein structure of the PilT motor. The surprisingly high forces generated by the PilT system motivate a model investigation of the generation of large forces in molecular motors. We propose a simple model, involving a small ensemble of motor subunits interacting through the deformations on a circular backbone with finite stiffness. The model describes the motor subunits in terms of diffusing particles in an asymmetric, time-dependent binding potential (flashing ratchet potential), roughly corresponding to the ATP hydrolysis cycle. We compute force-velocity relations in a subset of the parameter space and explore how the maximum force (stall force) is determined by stiffness, binding strength, ensemble size, and degree of asymmetry. We identify two qualitatively different regimes of operation depending on the relation between ensemble size and asymmetry. In the transition between these two regimes, the stall force depends nonlinearly on the number of motor subunits. Compared to its constituents without interactions, we find higher efficiency and qualitatively different force-velocity relations. The model captures several of the qualitative features obtained in experiments on pilus retraction forces, such as roughly constant velocity at low applied forces and insensitivity in the stall force to changes in the ATP concentration.Comment: RevTex 9 pages, 4 figures. Revised version, new subsections in Sec. III, removed typo

Microscopic Origin of Quantum Chaos in Rotational Damping

The rotational spectrum of $^{168}$Yb is calculated diagonalizing different effective interactions within the basis of unperturbed rotational bands provided by the cranked shell model. A transition between order and chaos taking place in the energy region between 1 and 2 MeV above the yrast line is observed, associated with the onset of rotational damping. It can be related to the higher multipole components of the force acting among the unperturbed rotational bands.Comment: 7 pages, plain TEX, YITP/K-99

Europium-based high-temperature superconductors studied by x-ray diffraction and 151Eu Mössbauer spectroscopy

Isotropic powders and magnetically aligned crystallites of EuBa2Cu3O7−δ (1:2:3) and europium-doped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 (2:2:1:2) were studied by means of x-ray diffraction and Eu151 Mössbauer spectroscopy. The degree of crystallite orientation of the samples and the values of the lattice constants were determined by x-ray diffraction. The Mössbauer spectra were analyzed considering the full hyperfine Hamiltonian of the nuclear states of the 21.5-keV γ transition. The Mössbauer hyperfine parameters obtained from the superconducting and semiconducting phases are presented. A small change is seen in the Eu151 isomer shift when the oxygen deficiency δ of the 1:2:3 compound is varied. The shift can be explained by a decrease in the s-electron density due to lattice expansion. The changes in the oxidation state of the copper atoms with varying δ were determined from the Mössbauer data: The Cu(2) atoms retain their oxidation state, whereas the Cu(1) atoms adjust their valence according to the value of δ. In the 2:2:1:2 samples, the Eu concentration clearly affected the value of the electric-field gradient at the Eu nucleus. Using a standard procedure, magnetically aligned 2:2:1:2 samples were prepared. The preferred direction of the crystal c axis changed from parallel to perpendicular alignment with the external magnetic field, when the Eu concentration exceeded 20% of the Ca atoms.Peer reviewe

Effective three-band model for double perovskites

We start from a six-band model describing the transition-metal t2g orbitals of half-metallic double perovskite systems, such as Sr2FeMoO6, in which only one of the transition metal ions (Fe) contains important intratomic repulsion Ufe. By eliminating the Mo orbitals using a low-energy reduction similar to that used in the cuprates, we construct a Hamiltonian which contains only effective t2g Fe orbitals. This allows to treat exactly Ufe, and most of the Fe-Mo hopping. As an application, we treat the effective Hamiltonian in the slave-boson mean-field approximation and calculate the position of the metal-insulator transition and other quantities as a function of pressure or on-site energy difference.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Transcriptional profiling of rat white adipose tissue response to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin

Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins are environmental contaminants commonly produced as a by-product of industrial processes. The most potent of these, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-rho-dioxin (TCDD), is highly lipophilic, leading to bioaccumulation. White adipose tissue (WAT) is a major site for energy storage, and is one of the organs in which TCDD accumulates. In laboratory animals, exposure to TCDD causes numerous metabolic abnormalities, including a wasting syndrome. We therefore investigated the molecular effects of TCDD exposure on WAT by profiling the transcriptomic response of WAT to 100 mu g/kg of TCDD at 1 or 4 days in TCDD-sensitive Long-Evans (Turku/AB; L-E) rats. A comparative analysis was conducted simultaneously in identically treated TCDD-resistant Han/Wistar (Kuopio; H/W) rats one day after exposure to the same dose. We sought to identify transcriptomic changes coinciding with the onset of toxicity, while gaining additional insight into later responses. More transcriptional responses to TCDD were observed at 4 days than at I day post-exposure, suggesting WAT shows mostly secondary responses. Two classic AHR-regulated genes, Cyp1a1 and Nqo1, were significantly induced by TCDD in both strains, while several genes involved in the immune response, including Ms4a7 and Fl1a1 were altered in L-E rats alone. We compared genes affected by TCDD in rat WAT and human adipose cells, and observed little overlap. Interestingly, very few genes involved in lipid metabolism exhibited altered expression levels despite the pronounced lipid mobilization from peripheral fat pads by TCDD in L-E rats. Of these genes, the lipolysis-associated Lpin1 was induced slightly over 2-fold in L-E rat WAT on day 4. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.Peer reviewe

Entropic Tension in Crowded Membranes

Unlike their model membrane counterparts, biological membranes are richly decorated with a heterogeneous assembly of membrane proteins. These proteins are so tightly packed that their excluded area interactions can alter the free energy landscape controlling the conformational transitions suffered by such proteins. For membrane channels, this effect can alter the critical membrane tension at which they undergo a transition from a closed to an open state, and therefore influence protein function \emph{in vivo}. Despite their obvious importance, crowding phenomena in membranes are much less well studied than in the cytoplasm. Using statistical mechanics results for hard disk liquids, we show that crowding induces an entropic tension in the membrane, which influences transitions that alter the projected area and circumference of a membrane protein. As a specific case study in this effect, we consider the impact of crowding on the gating properties of bacterial mechanosensitive membrane channels, which are thought to confer osmoprotection when these cells are subjected to osmotic shock. We find that crowding can alter the gating energies by more than $2\;k_BT$ in physiological conditions, a substantial fraction of the total gating energies in some cases. Given the ubiquity of membrane crowding, the nonspecific nature of excluded volume interactions, and the fact that the function of many membrane proteins involve significant conformational changes, this specific case study highlights a general aspect in the function of membrane proteins.Comment: 20 pages (inclduing supporting information), 4 figures, to appear in PLoS Comp. Bio

Bonn Potential and Shell-Model Calculations for 206,205,204Pb

The structure of the nuclei 206,205,204Pb is studied interms of shell model employing a realistic effective interaction derived from the Bonn A nucleon-nucleon potential. The energy spectra, binding energies and electromagnetic properties are calculated and compared with experiment. A very good overall agreement is obtained. This evidences the reliability of our realistic effective interaction and encourages use of modern realistic potentials in shell-model calculations for heavy-mass nuclei.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review