Genetically identical cell populations exhibit considerable intercellular variation in the level of a given protein or mRNA. Both intrinsic and extrinsic sources of noise drive this variability in gene expression. More specifically, extrinsic noise is the expression variability that arises from cell-to-cell differences in cell-specific factors such as enzyme levels, cell size and cell cycle sta...

While the rBle of thyroxine in the body’s growth, development, and maintenance is important, as yet no definitive mechanism or locus of action for it has been delineated. In a recent review, Barker (1) has considered many of the enzymatic phenomena associated with different thyroidal states, and it is obvious from a consideration of the effects of this hormone that its action has wide-spread ra...

Macromolecular crowding has a profound effect upon biochemical processes in the cell. We have computationally studied the effect of crowding upon protein folding for 12 small domains in a simulated cell using a coarse-grained protein model, which is based upon Langevin dynamics, designed to unify the often disjoint goals of protein folding simulation and structure prediction. The model can make...

The toxic effects of chemicals can be affected by a variety of modulating factors that can increase or reduce the chemical's effectiveness.Four particular environmental factors, namely smoking, alcohol, drugs, and climate, have been chosen for examples from the wealth of literature. Where possible the interacting effects are analysed in terms of their influence on the basic biochemical process ...

Although the biopsychosocial model has been a popular topic of discussion for over four decades it has not had the traction in fields of research that might be expected of such an intuitively appealing idea. One reason for this might be the absence of an identified mechanism or a functional architecture that is authentically biopsychosocial. What is needed is a robust mechanism that is equally ...

In the paper the kinetic model of the biochemical process of cellulose hydrolysis with cell application is presented. The model includes enzyme biosynthesis control and is open conditions it represents the dynamical system in the preturbulent regime. The limit cycle and its five consequence bifurcations of the doubling-period type are found. Also the limit regime of the system the strange attra...

Ligninolytic fungi and enzymes (i.e., laccase, manganese peroxidase, and lignin peroxidase) have been applied recently in the production of second-generation biofuels. This review contains the analysis of ligninolytic enzymes and their applications in second-generation biofuels. In here, each of the ligninolytic enzymes was described analyzing their structures, catalysis, and reaction mechanism...

Molecular genetic techniques are beginning to bring about a detailed understanding of the biochemical processes underlying complex cognitive phenomena such as memory, with investigations approaching atomic-level resolution. An excellent example of this is provided in this issue of Cell by Costa-Mattioli et al. (2007), whose results implicate a single protein dephosphorylation event in the contr...

This paper presents a thermodynamic analysis of a high-yield biochemical process for biofuel production from lignocelluosic biomass based on a previously proposed process. Unlike the standard biochemical process, which ferments sugar intermediates to ethanol, the process under consideration converts sugars to acetic acid which is esterified and hydrogenated to produce ethanol. This process has ...

Bistability is a major mechanism for cellular decision making and usually results from positive feedback in biochemical control systems. Here we show theoretically that bistability between unbound and bound states of adhesion clusters results from positive feedback mediated by structural rather than biochemical processes, namely by receptor-ligand dissociation and association dynamics that depe...