title: An investigation of the plausibility of stochastic resonance in tubulin dimers.
abstract: This paper considers the possibility of stochastic resonance (SR) in tubulin dimers. A formula for the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of tubulin as a function of temperature is derived. The effective potential experienced by a delocalized electron in such a dimer is postulated to be a symmetric bimodal well. Inter-well and intra-well motions are described by Kramers rate theory and the Langevin formalism respectively. The frequency-dependent expression for the SNR shows that the response of the electron-tubulin dimer system is enhanced by ambient dipolar oscillations in specific frequency regimes. This is a characteristic of SR. Biophysical implications of this property such as the relevance to 8.085 MHz microtubule resonance and the clocking mechanism are detailed.
authors: Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. asaha@ualberta.ca
authors: Aditya A
authors: AA
authors: Saha
authors: Travis J A
authors: TJ
authors: Craddock
authors: Jack A
authors: JA
authors: Tuszynski
mesh_terms: D008870:Microtubules / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D055503:Protein Multimerization; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D013696:Temperature; D014404:Tubulin / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D014732:Vibration
chemical_list: D014404:Tubulin