title: Computational methods for yeast prion curing curves.
abstract: If the chemical guanidine hydrochloride is added to a dividing culture of yeast cells in which some of the protein Sup35p is in its prion form, the proportion of cells that carry replicating units of the prion, termed propagons, decreases gradually over time. Stochastic models to describe this process of 'curing' have been developed in earlier work. The present paper investigates the use of numerical methods of Laplace transform inversion to calculate curing curves and contrasts this with an alternative, more direct, approach that involves numerical integration. Transform inversion is found to provide a much more efficient computational approach that allows different models to be investigated with minimal programming effort. The method is used to investigate the robustness of the curing curve to changes in the assumed distribution of cell generation times. Matlab code is available for carrying out the calculations.
authors: Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Kent, Cornwallis Building, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NF, UK. m.s.ridout@kent.ac.uk
authors: Martin S
authors: MS
authors: Ridout
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D019791:Guanidine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008954:Models, Biological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010454:Peptide Termination Factors; D011328:Prions / Q000502:physiology*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D012984:Software
chemical_list: D010454:Peptide Termination Factors; D011328:Prions; C068068:SUP35 protein, S cerevisiae; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D019791:Guanidine