Brownian ratchets and chromosome loop extrusion

Statistical Physics and Complexity Group meeting

Brownian ratchets and chromosome loop extrusion

Event details

I will discuss the Brownian ratchet model, originally introduced by Peskin, Odell and Oster, as a framework to understand cellular motility powered by actin polymerisation. I will then present a related mechanism which we have recently come across, that involves the rectification of the diffusion of cohesin (a molecular slip-link associated with DNA) to yield extrusion of large chromosome loops.