coulomb interactions between cytoplasmic electric fields and phosphorylated messenger proteins optimize information flow in cells库仑细胞质电场之间的相互作用和蛋白质磷酸化信使优化信息流在细胞.pdfVIP

Coulomb Interactions between Cytoplasmic Electric Fields and Phosphorylated Messenger Proteins Optimize Information Flow in Cells 1 2 Robert A. Gatenby *, B. Roy Frieden 1 Departments of Radiology and Integrated Mathematical Oncology, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, United States of America, 2 College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America Abstract Background: Normal cell function requires timely and accurate transmission of information from receptors on the cell membrane (CM) to the nucleus. Movement of messenger proteins in the cytoplasm is thought to be dependent on random walk. However, Brownian motion will disperse messenger proteins throughout the cytosol resulting in slow and highly variable transit times. We propose that a critical component of information transfer is an intracellular electric field generated by distribution of charge on the nuclear membrane (NM). While the latter has been demonstrated experimentally for decades, the role of the consequent electric field has been assumed to be minimal due to a Debye length of about 1 nanometer that results from screening by intracellular Cl2 + and K . We propose inclusion of these inorganic ions in the Debye-Huckel equation is incorrect because nuclear pores allow transit through the membrane at a rate far faster than the time to thermodynamic equilibrium. In our model, only the charged, mobile messenger proteins contribute to the Debye length. Findings: Using this revised model and published data, we estimate the NM possesses a Debye-Huckel length of a few microns and find this is consistent with recent me