| Issue |
EPL
Volume 96, Number 2, October 2011
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 28001 | |
| Number of page(s) | 6 | |
| Section | Interdisciplinary Physics and Related Areas of Science and Technology | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/96/28001 | |
| Published online | 23 September 2011 | |
Modelling bacterial flagellar growth
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Berlin - Hardenbergstraße 36, 10623 Berlin, Germany, EU
Received:
6
July
2011
Accepted:
25
August
2011
The growth of bacterial flagellar filaments is a self-assembly process where flagellin molecules are transported through the narrow core of the flagellum and are added at the distal end. To model this situation, we generalize a growth process based on the TASEP model by allowing particles to move both forward and backward on the lattice. The bias in the forward and backward jump rates determines the lattice tip speed, which we analyze and also compare to simulations. For positive bias, the system is in a non-equilibrium steady state and exhibits boundary-induced phase transitions. The tip speed is constant. In the no-bias case we find that the length of the lattice grows as 
, whereas for negative drift N(t)∝ln t. The latter result agrees with experimental data of bacterial flagellar growth.
PACS: 87.10.Hk – Lattice models / 87.16.Ka – Filaments, microtubules, their networks, and supramolecular assemblies / 87.16.Qp – Pseudopods, lamellipods, cilia, and flagella
© EPLA, 2011
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