Title: Modelling the mRNA-Ribosome Complex: A study of polymer diffusion in the bacterial cytoplasm.

Author (Talk): Peter Williams, Yale University

Abstract:

The bacterial cytoplasm has been shown to behave similarly to a colloidal suspension near the glass transition. The Jacobs-Wagner group at Yale University has shown that free 50S ribosomal subunits diffuse with a diffusion coefficient roughly two orders of magnitude higher than those bound to mRNA. This study constructs hard sphere polymer models to investigate this discrepancy in diffusion coefficients and better understand the dynamics of the complex bacterial cytoplasm.