Template-Directed Copolymerization, Random Walks along Disordered Tracks, and Fractals

Pierre Gaspard
Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 238101 – Published 30 November 2016
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Abstract

In biology, template-directed copolymerization is the fundamental mechanism responsible for the synthesis of DNA, RNA, and proteins. More than 50 years have passed since the discovery of DNA structure and its role in coding genetic information. Yet, the kinetics and thermodynamics of information processing in DNA replication, transcription, and translation remain poorly understood. Challenging issues are the facts that DNA or RNA sequences constitute disordered media for the motion of polymerases or ribosomes while errors occur in copying the template. Here, it is shown that these issues can be addressed and sequence heterogeneity effects can be quantitatively understood within a framework revealing universal aspects of information processing at the molecular scale. In steady growth regimes, the local velocities of polymerases or ribosomes along the template are distributed as the continuous or fractal invariant set of a so-called iterated function system, which determines the copying error probabilities. The growth may become sublinear in time with a scaling exponent that can also be deduced from the iterated function system.

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  • Received 10 April 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.238101

© 2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied PhysicsPolymers & Soft MatterPhysics of Living Systems

Authors & Affiliations

Pierre Gaspard

  • Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Code Postal 231, Campus Plaine, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium

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Issue

Vol. 117, Iss. 23 — 2 December 2016

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