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Modeling DNA and Virus Trafficking in the Cell Cytoplasm

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Abstract

Cytosol trafficking is a limiting step of viral infection or DNA delivery. Starting from the cell surface, most viruses have to travel through a crowded and risky environment in order to reach a small nuclear pore. This work is dedicated to estimating the probability p N of a viral arrival success and, in that case, the mean time τ N it takes. Viral movement is described by a stochastic equation, containing both a drift and a Brownian component. The drift part represents the movement along microtubules, while the Brownian component corresponds to the free diffusion. The success of a viral infection is limited by a killing activity occurring inside the cytoplasm. We model the killing activity by a steady state killing rate k. Because nuclear pores occupy a small fraction of the nuclear area, we use this property to obtain asymptotic estimates of p N and τ N as a function of the diffusion constant D, the amplitude of the drift B and the killing rate k.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de Biologie, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 46 rue d’Ulm, 75005, Paris, France

    D. Holcman

  2. Department of Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel

    D. Holcman

Authors
  1. D. Holcman
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Correspondence to D. Holcman.

Additional information

This paper is dedicated to my wife Nathalie Rouach.

D. H. is supported by the program “Chaire d’Excellence.”

D.H is incumbent to the Haas Russell Chair

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Holcman, D. Modeling DNA and Virus Trafficking in the Cell Cytoplasm. J Stat Phys 127, 471–494 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-007-9282-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-007-9282-4

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