Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: Biological physics is in its heyday: we are witnessing the great success of single molecule techniques, new possibilities for probing and manipulating biological systems, and new theoretical concepts. For instance, optical tweezers allow one to manipulate individual biopolymers and obtain previously inaccessible results. These include measurements of the interaction between single stranded DNA binding proteins and the DNA molecule itself, and confirmation of 1D motion along the DNA chain. New optical methods allow the motion of individual particles within a cell to be tracked in space and time. Such experimental advances also inspire new directions for theory. For instance, the exploration of fluctuation theorems has added a completely new perspective to statistical mechanics. This focus issue brings together a number of studies that exemplify this development. The papers range from conceptual statistical mechanical approaches to biopolymer physics to cell mechanics. From a physics perspective, cells are complex systems combining numerous processes that can either be driven by thermal fluctuations (such as the search processes of DNA binding proteins for their binding sites on the DNA) or by active motion fuelled by biochemical energy (such as molecular motors). A complete description of all these processes remains elusive. Moreover they cannot be simulated. The individual puzzles are beginning to be unraveled, but many questions remain. For example, how are intracellular transport and regulation affected by the high degree of molecular crowding? How is the arrangement of individual genes on the DNA connected with the specific spatial configuration of the DNA in the cell? It will be interesting to see what a similar survey produces in ten years' time. We would like to thank the Editorial Board of Physical Biology for the opportunity to organize this focus issue. Thanks also to IOP Publishing, and to Andrew Malloy in particular, for the professional handling of the issue. And of course we would like to thank all those who accepted our invitation and contributed interesting reports on the state-of-the-art in their respective fields.
Source: Physical Biology
Language: English
Subfield: Cell Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2002444270