Rectified Brownian
Motion in Sub-Cellular Biology
The mechanism of
rectified Brownian motion will be described and applied to several sub-cellular
processes. This mechanism is distinct from that of Brownian ratchets. A
particularly nice example of the mechanism is given by the ubiquinone shuttle
of electron transport chains that couples electron currents to proton currents.
This example will be used to motivate the basic idea. Certain rotary enzymes
will be described that putatively function by rectified Brownian motion. The
remainder of the talk will be a proposal for the function of the motor protein
kinesin wherein rectified Brownian motion plays the central role.