title: Kinetics of self-assembling microtubules: an "inverse problem" in biochemistry.
abstract: Experimental time series for a nonequilibrium reaction may in some cases contain sufficient data to determine a unique kinetic model for the reaction by a systematic mathematical analysis. As an example, a kinetic model for the self-assembly of microtubules is derived here from turbidity time series for solutions in which microtubules assemble. The model may be seen as a generalization of Oosawa's classical nucleation-polymerization model. It reproduces the experimental data with a four-stage nucleation process and a critical nucleus of 15 monomers.
authors.affiliation: Höchstleistungsrechenzentrum, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Flyvbjerg
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jobs
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Leibler
mesh_terms: D007700:Kinetics; D008870:Microtubules / Q000378:metabolism*; D008956:Models, Chemical