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SUMMARY:Statistical physics modeling of the bacterial flagellar motor - Th
 ierry Mora\, Princeton
DTSTART:20091109T103000Z
DTEND:20091109T110000Z
UID:TALK21423@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Duncan Simpson
DESCRIPTION:Many bacteria like E. coli swim by virtue of small rotary moto
 rs that drive rotation of helical flagella. Each motor is powered by a tra
 nsmembrane proton flux passing through the motor. This flux is converted i
 nto torque with near-perfect efficiency by a mechanism whose details remai
 n largely unknown. First I will describe the important biophysical propert
 ies of the motor\, as measured in experiments\, including the recent obser
 vation of a stepping behaviour at low speeds. I will then present a simple
  physical model that allows us to explain most of these data\, but also to
  make new predictions. In particular\, I will show how steps can be interp
 reted as barrier-crossing events in a corrugated energy landscape. Then I 
 will show how to use our model to calculate the effect of shot noise (due 
 to the discrete nature of the energy source--the protons) on motor diffusi
 vity\, and thus propose experiments to measure the proton cooperativity in
  the torque generation process.
LOCATION:Seminar Room\, Centre for Physics of Medicine (PoM)
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