Scaling behaviour and rate-determining steps in filamentous self-assembly.

ABSTRACT: The formation of filaments from naturally occurring protein molecules is a process at the core of a range of functional and aberrant biological phenomena, such as the assembly of the cytoskeleton or the appearance of aggregates in Alzheimer's disease. The macroscopic behaviour associated with such processes is remarkably diverse, ranging from simple nucleated growth to highly cooperative processes with a well-defined lagtime. Thus, conventionally, different molecular mechanisms have been used to explain the self-assembly of different proteins. Here we show that this range of behaviour can be quantitatively captured by a single unifying Petri net that describes filamentous growth in terms of aggregate number and aggregate mass concentrations. By considering general features associated with

SUBMITTER: Meisl G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5637470 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature