We consider solitonic solutions of coupled scalar systems, whose Lagrangian has a potential term (quasi-supersymmetric potential) consisting of the square of derivative of a superpotential. The most important feature of such a theory is that among soliton masses there holds a Ritz-like combination rule (e.g. M12 + M23 = M13), instead of the inequality (M12 + M23 < M13) which is a stability rela...

Numerous nanoscale devices and materials have been fabricated in recent years using a variety of biological scaffolds. However, the interfacing of these devices and materials into existing circuits and ordered arrays has proved problematic. Here, we describe a simple solution to this problem using self-assembly of the peptide coiled-coil heterodimer ACID:BASE to immobilize M13 bacteriophage par...

We study a construction of the Mathieu group M12 using a game reminiscent of Loyd’s “15-puzzle”. The elements of M12 are realized as permutations on 12 of the 13 points of the finite projective plane of order 3. There is a natural extension to a “pseudogroup” M13 acting on all 13 points, which exhibits a limited form of sextuple transitivity. Another corollary of the construction is a metric, a...

We report a virus-based scaffold for the synthesis of single-crystal ZnS, CdS, and freestanding chemically ordered CoPt and FePt nanowires, with the means of modifying substrate specificity through standard biological methods. Peptides (selected through an evolutionary screening process) that exhibit control of composition, size, and phase during nanoparticle nucleation have been expressed on t...

Developmental changes in the membrane electrical properties during the differentiation of a newly established clonal myogenic cell line MC3T3-A1/M13 (M13) derived from newborn mouse calvaria were studied using the conventional intracellular recording method. M13 cells proliferated in vitro with a population doubling time of about 20 hr when they were cultured in alpha-MEM containing 10% newborn...

Background. How host-symbiont interactions coevolve between mutualism and parasitism depends on the ecology of the system and on the genetic and physiological constraints of the organisms involved. Theory often predicts that greater reliance on horizontal transmission favors increased costs of infection and may result in more virulent parasites or less beneficial mutualists. We set out to under...

Gene 5 protein (gp5) of bacteriophage T7 is a non-processive DNA polymerase, which acquires high processivity by binding to Escherichia coli thioredoxin. The gene 5 protein-thioredoxin complex (gp5/trx) polymerizes thousands of nucleotides before dissociating from a primer-template. We have engineered a disulfide linkage between the gene 5 protein and thioredoxin within the binding surface of t...