2 research outputs found
A Universal Method for Analysing Copolymer Growth
Polymers consisting of more than one type of monomer, known as copolymers,
are vital to both living and synthetic systems. Copolymerisation has been
studied theoretically in a number of contexts, often by considering a Markov
process in which monomers are added or removed from the growing tip of a long
copolymer. To date, the analysis of the most general models of this class has
necessitated simulation. We present a general method for analysing such
processes without resorting to simulation. Our method can be applied to models
with an arbitrary network of sub-steps prior to addition or removal of a
monomer, including non-equilibrium kinetic proofreading cycles. Moreover, the
approach allows for a dependency of addition and removal reactions on the
neighbouring site in the copolymer, and thermodynamically self-consistent
models in which all steps are assumed to be microscopically reversible. Using
our approach, thermodynamic quantities such as chemical work; kinetic
quantities such as time taken to grow; and statistical quantities such as the
distribution of monomer types in the growing copolymer can be derived either
analytically or numerically directly from the model definition.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figure