TY - JOUR A1 - Valleriani, Angelo A1 - Zhang, Gong A1 - Nagar, Apoorva A1 - Ignatova, Zoya A1 - Lipowsky, Reinhard T1 - Length-dependent translation of messenger RNA by ribosomes JF - Physical review : E, Statistical, nonlinear and soft matter physics N2 - A simple measure for the efficiency of protein synthesis by ribosomes is provided by the steady state amount of protein per messenger RNA (mRNA), the so-called translational ratio, which is proportional to the translation rate. Taking the degradation of mRNA into account, we show theoretically that both the translation rate and the translational ratio decrease with increasing mRNA length, in agreement with available experimental data for the prokaryote Escherichia coli. We also show that, compared to prokaryotes, mRNA degradation in eukaryotes leads to a less rapid decrease of the translational ratio. This finding is consistent with the fact that, compared to prokaryotes, eukaryotes tend to have longer proteins. Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.83.042903 SN - 1539-3755 VL - 83 IS - 4 PB - American Physical Society CY - College Park ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stange, Maike A1 - Hintsche, Marius A1 - Sachse, Kirsten A1 - Gerhardt, Matthias A1 - Valleriani, Angelo A1 - Beta, Carsten T1 - Analyzing the spatial positioning of nuclei in polynuclear giant cells JF - Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics N2 - How cells establish and maintain a well-defined size is a fundamental question of cell biology. Here we investigated to what extent the microtubule cytoskeleton can set a predefined cell size, independent of an enclosing cell membrane. We used electropulse-induced cell fusion to form giant multinuclear cells of the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. Based on dual-color confocal imaging of cells that expressed fluorescent markers for the cell nucleus and the microtubules, we determined the subcellular distributions of nuclei and centrosomes in the giant cells. Our two- and three-dimensional imaging results showed that the positions of nuclei in giant cells do not fall onto a regular lattice. However, a comparison with model predictions for random positioning showed that the subcellular arrangement of nuclei maintains a low but still detectable degree of ordering. This can be explained by the steric requirements of the microtubule cytoskeleton, as confirmed by the effect of a microtubule degrading drug. KW - Dictyostelium KW - cell nucleus KW - positioning KW - imaging KW - spatial poisson distribution Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/aa8da0 SN - 0022-3727 SN - 1361-6463 VL - 50 IS - 46 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rusconi, Marco A1 - Valleriani, Angelo A1 - Dunlop, John William Chapman A1 - Kurths, Jürgen A1 - Weinkamer, Richard T1 - Insights into the control of trabecular bone remodelling obtained by a Markov model Y1 - 2009 UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/87563282 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bone.2009.03.467 SN - 8756-3282 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rusconi, Marco A1 - Valleriani, Angelo A1 - Dunlop, John William Chapman A1 - Kurths, Jürgen A1 - Weinkamer, Richard T1 - Quantitative approach to the stochastics of bone remodeling JF - epl : a letters journal exploring the frontiers of physics N2 - During life bones constantly adapt their structure to their mechanical environment via a mechanically controlled process called bone remodeling. For trabecular bone, this process modifies the thickness of each trabecula leading occasionally to full resorption. We describe the irreversible dynamics of the trabecular thickness distribution (TTD) by means of a Markov chain discrete in space and time. By using thickness data from adult patients, we derive the transition probabilities in the chain. This allows a quantification, in terms of geometrical quantities, of the control of bone remodeling and thus to determine the evolution of the TTD with age. Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/97/28009 SN - 0295-5075 VL - 97 IS - 2 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Mulhouse ER -