Physics of Transport and Traffic Phenomena in Biology: from molecular motors and cells to organisms
By Debashish Chowdhury, Andreas Schadschneider, K. Nishinari. 2005
330 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Abstract Traffic-like collective movements are observed at almost all levels of biological systems. Molecular motor proteins like, for example, kinesin and dynein, which are the vehicles of almost all intra-cellular transport in eukaryotic cells, sometimes encounter traffic jam that manifests as a disease of the organism. Similarly, traffic jam of collagenase MMP-1, which moves on the collagen fibrils of the extracellular matrix of vertebrates, has also been observed in recent experiments. Novel efforts have been made to utilize some uni-cellular organisms as “micro-transporters”. Traffic-like movements of social insects like ants and termites on trails are, perhaps, more familiar in our everyday life. Experimental, theoretical and computational investigations in the last few years have led to a deeper understanding of the generic or common physical principles involved in these phenomena. In this review we critically examine the current status of our understanding, expose the limitations of the existing methods, mention open challenging questions and speculate on the possible future directions of research in this interdisciplinary area where physics meets not only chemistry and biology but also (nano-)technology.
Subfields: Condensed Matter Physics, Molecular Biology, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ad5ef5cfd7d2fc1d6ddb6e3e506a4d2c03410a85
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In Condensed Matter Physics
In Molecular Biology
In Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Citations in the corpus
- Nonequilibrium steady states of matrix-product form: a solver's guide (2007, background): “, as a general model for traffic flow [42] and various other theoretical and experimental studies of biophysical transport [43–48].”
- Non-equilibrium statistical mechanics: from a paradigmatic model to biological transport (2011, neutral): “Motors are enzymes such as dynein, kinesin, and myosin that hydrolyze 1686 molecules such as ATP or GTP, turning the free energy released to directed motion 1687 along their one-dimensional substrate [272, 273].”
- On the Modeling of Traffic and Crowds: A Survey of Models, Speculations, and Perspectives (2011, background): “Heterogeneity of individual behaviors plays an important role in the dynamics of swarms of cells in biology [17], [43], where several complex events such as proliferative/destructive events or mutations may arise in short time intervals.”