Fluctuations in protein synthesis from a single RNA template: Stochastic kinetics of ribosomes

Garai, Ashok and Chowdhury, Debashish and Ramakrishnan, TV (2009) Fluctuations in protein synthesis from a single RNA template: Stochastic kinetics of ribosomes. In: Physical Review E, 79 (1, Par). 011916 -1-011916 -6.

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Abstract

Proteins are polymerized by cyclic machines called ribosomes, which use their messenger RNA (mRNA) track also as the corresponding template, and the process is called translation. We explore, in depth and detail, the stochastic nature of the translation. We compute various distributions associated with the translation process; one of them-namely, the dwell time distribution-has been measured in recent single-ribosome experiments. The form of the distribution, which fits best with our simulation data, is consistent with that extracted from the experimental data. For our computations, we use a model that captures both the mechanochemistry of each individual ribosome and their steric interactions. We also demonstrate the effects of the sequence inhomogeneities of real genes on the fluctuations and noise in translation. Finally, inspired by recent advances in the experimental techniques of manipulating single ribosomes, we make theoretical predictions on the force-velocity relation for individual ribosomes. In principle, all our predictions can be tested by carrying out in vitro experiments.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Physical Review E
Publisher:	The American Physical Society
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to The American Physical Society.
Keywords:	cellular biophysics;fluctuations;macromolecules;molecular biophysics;proteins;stochastic processes.
Department/Centre:	Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Physics
Date Deposited:	21 Jul 2009 13:53
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 05:28
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/19467

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