Berlin 2024 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 34: Statistical Physics of Biological Systems III (joint session BP/DY)
BP 34.6: Talk
Friday, March 22, 2024, 11:15–11:30, H 2032
Exclusion model of mRNA translation with collision-induced ribosome drop-off — Johannes Keisers1 and •Joachim Krug2 — 1Centre de Biologie Structurale (CBS), Université de Montpellier, 34090 Montpellier, France — 2Institute for Biological Physics, University of Cologne, 50937 Köln, Germany
The translation of messenger RNA transcripts to proteins can be modeled as a one-dimensional totally asymmetric exclusion process with extended particles. In this contribution we focus on the effects of premature termination of translation through the irreversible detachment of ribosomes. We consider a model where the detachment is induced by the unsuccessful attempt to move to an occupied site [1]. The model is exactly solvable in a simplified geometry consisting of the translation initiation region followed by a single slow site representing a translation bottleneck. In agreement with a recent experimental study, we find a non-monotonic dependence of the protein production rate on the initiation rate, but only if the leading particle in a colliding pair detaches. The homogeneous version of the model is related to an asymmetric reaction-diffusion model with a localized input of particles. We exploit this connection to show that, for long transcripts, the ribosome density decays asymptotically as the inverse square root of the distance to the initiation site.
[1] J. Keisers, J. Krug, J. Phys. A 56 (2023) 385601
Keywords: gene expression; exclusion process; reaction-diffusion kinetics; translation errors; ribosome rescue