Faculty Articles
An Investigation of the Plausibility of Stochastic Resonance in Tubulin Dimers
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-2012
Publication Title
Biosystems
Volume
107
Issue/Number
2
First Page
81
ISSN
0303-2647
Last Page
87
Abstract/Excerpt
This paper considers the possibility of stochastic resonance (SR) in tubulin dimers. A formula for the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of tubulin as a function of temperature is derived. The effective potential experienced by a delocalized electron in such a dimer is postulated to be a symmetric bimodal well. Inter-well and intra-well motions are described by Kramers rate theory and the Langevin formalism respectively. The frequency-dependent expression for the SNR shows that the response of the electron-tubulin dimer system is enhanced by ambient dipolar oscillations in specific frequency regimes. This is a characteristic of SR. Biophysical implications of this property such as the relevance to 8.085 MHz microtubule resonance and the clocking mechanism are detailed.
DOI
10.1016/j.biosystems.2011.09.005
NSUWorks Citation
Craddock, T. J.,
Saha, A. A.,
Tuszynski, J. A.
(2012). An Investigation of the Plausibility of Stochastic Resonance in Tubulin Dimers. Biosystems, 107(2), 81-87.
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facarticles/216
