6,819 research outputs found
Molecular Electroporation and the Transduction of Oligoarginines
Certain short polycations, such as TAT and polyarginine, rapidly pass through
the plasma membranes of mammalian cells by an unknown mechanism called
transduction as well as by endocytosis and macropinocytosis. These
cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) promise to be medically useful when fused to
biologically active peptides. I offer a simple model in which one or more CPPs
and the phosphatidylserines of the inner leaflet form a kind of capacitor with
a voltage in excess of 180 mV, high enough to create a molecular electropore.
The model is consistent with an empirical upper limit on the cargo peptide of
40--60 amino acids and with experimental data on how the transduction of a
polyarginine-fluorophore into mouse C2C12 myoblasts depends on the number of
arginines in the CPP and on the CPP concentration. The model makes three
testable predictions.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure
Efficiency at maximum power of interacting molecular machines
We investigate the efficiency of systems of molecular motors operating at
maximum power. We consider two models of kinesin motors on a microtubule: for
both the simplified and the detailed model, we find that the many-body
exclusion effect enhances the efficiency at maximum power of the many-motor
system, with respect to the single motor case. Remarkably, we find that this
effect occurs in a limited region of the system parameters, compatible with the
biologically relevant range.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Non-equilibrium mechanics and dynamics of motor activated gels
The mechanics of cells is strongly affected by molecular motors that generate
forces in the cellular cytoskeleton. We develop a model for cytoskeletal
networks driven out of equilibrium by molecular motors exerting transient
contractile stresses. Using this model we show how motor activity can
dramatically increase the network's bulk elastic moduli. We also show how motor
binding kinetics naturally leads to enhanced low-frequency stress fluctuations
that result in non-equilibrium diffusive motion within an elastic network, as
seen in recent \emph{in vitro} and \emph{in vivo} experiments.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure
No many-scallop theorem: Collective locomotion of reciprocal swimmers
To achieve propulsion at low Reynolds number, a swimmer must deform in a way
that is not invariant under time-reversal symmetry; this result is known as the
scallop theorem. We show here that there is no many-scallop theorem. We
demonstrate that two active particles undergoing reciprocal deformations can
swim collectively; moreover, polar particles also experience effective
long-range interactions. These results are derived for a minimal dimers model,
and generalized to more complex geometries on the basis of symmetry and scaling
arguments. We explain how such cooperative locomotion can be realized
experimentally by shaking a collection of soft particles with a homogeneous
external field
Behavioral biology of mammalian reproduction and development for a space station
Space Station research includes two kinds of adaption to space: somatic (the adjustments made by an organism, within its lifetime, in response to local conditions), and transgenerational adaption (continuous exposure across sequential life cycles of genetic descendents). Transgenerational effects are akin to evolutionary process. Areas of a life Sciences Program in a space station address the questions of the behavioral biology of mammalian reproduction and development, using the Norway rat as the focus of experimentation
Effect of dipolar moments in domain sizes of lipid bilayers and monolayers
Lipid domains are found in systems such as multi-component bilayer membranes
and single component monolayers at the air-water interface. It was shown by
Andelman et al. (Comptes Rendus 301, 675 (1985)) and McConnell et al. (Phys.
Chem. {\bf 91}, 6417 (1987)) that in monolayers, the size of the domains
results from balancing the line tension, which favors the formation of a large
single circular domain, against the electrostatic cost of assembling the
dipolar moments of the lipids. In this paper, we present an exact analytical
expression for the electric potential, ion distribution and electrostatic free
energy for different problems consisting of three different slabs with
different dielectric constants and Debye lengths, with a circular homogeneous
dipolar density in the middle slab. From these solutions, we extend the
calculation of domain sizes for monolayers to include the effects of finite
ionic strength, dielectric discontinuities (or image charges) and the
polarizability of the dipoles and further generalize the calculations to
account for domains in lipid bilayers. In monolayers, the size of the domains
is dependent on the different dielectric constants but independent of ionic
strength. In asymmetric bilayers, where the inner and outer leaflets have
different dipolar densities, domains show a strong size dependence with ionic
strength, with molecular-sized domains that grow to macroscopic phase
separation with increasing ionic strength. We discuss the implications of the
results for experiments and briefly consider their relation to other two
dimensional systems such as Wigner crystals or heteroepitaxial growth.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figues in eps Replaced with new version, one citation
added and a few statements corrected. The results of the paper are unchange
Dynamic entanglement in oscillating molecules and potential biological implications
We demonstrate that entanglement can persistently recur in an oscillating
two-spin molecule that is coupled to a hot and noisy environment, in which no
static entanglement can survive. The system represents a non-equilibrium
quantum system which, driven through the oscillatory motion, is prevented from
reaching its (separable) thermal equilibrium state. Environmental noise,
together with the driven motion, plays a constructive role by periodically
resetting the system, even though it will destroy entanglement as usual. As a
building block, the present simple mechanism supports the perspective that
entanglement can exist also in systems which are exposed to a hot environment
and to high levels of de-coherence, which we expect e.g. for biological
systems. Our results furthermore suggest that entanglement plays a role in the
heat exchange between molecular machines and environment. Experimental
simulation of our model with trapped ions is within reach of the current
state-of-the-art quantum technologies.Comment: Extended version, including supplementary information. 9 pages, 8
figure
Time scale of entropic segregation of flexible polymers in confinement: Implications for chromosome segregation in filamentous bacteria
We report molecular dynamics simulations of the segregation of two
overlapping chains in cylindrical confinement. We find that the entropic
repulsion between the chains can be sufficiently strong to cause segregation on
a time scale that is short compared to the one for diffusion. This result
implies that entropic driving forces are sufficiently strong to cause rapid
bacterial chromosome segregation.Comment: Minor changes. Added some references, corrected the labels in figure
6 and reformatted in two columns. Also added reference to published version
in PR
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