The copying fidelity of a polymerase facing an obstacle

by Saar Rahav

at Condensed Matter Seminar

Mon, 15 Jan 2018, 11:30
Physics building (#54) room 207

Abstract

The connections between information and thermodynamics have been fascinating scientists ever since Maxwell envisioned his famous demon One of the extensively studied problems in this field is the copying fidelity of molecular machines This fidelity can be increased using an out of equilibrium mechanism called kinetic discrimination Kinetic discrimination results in higher fidelity when the system is driven further away from equilibrium while at the same time the copying velocity increases What will happen to the copying fidelity when such a machine encounter an obstacle and slows down We investigate a simple model of a polymerase that copies a template and at the same time must open a single to double stranded junction to progress along its track We find that the kinetics of the bond opening and closing in the junction affect the fidelity of copying Surprisingly the copying fidelity turns out not to depend on the form of the elastic interaction between the polymerase and the junction Both passive and active interactions lead to the same mean rate of copying errors Our results suggest that the copying fidelity cannot be used as a tool to investigate the properties of the motor junction interaction

Created on 08-01-2018 by Bar Lev, Yevgeny (ybarlev)
Updaded on 08-01-2018 by Bar Lev, Yevgeny (ybarlev)