From a quantum mechanical description of the assembly processes in microtubules to their semiclassical nonlinear dynamics
Author
Faculty Advisor
Date
2007
Keywords
microtubules
Abstract (summary)
In this paper a quantum mechanical description of the assembly/disassembly process for microtubules is proposed. We introduce creation and annihilation operators that raise or lower the microtubule length by a tubulin layer. Following that, the Hamiltonian and corresponding equations of motion are derived that describe the dynamics of microtubules. These Heisenberg-type equations are then transformed to semi-classical equations using the method of coherent structures. The latter equations are very similar to the phenomenological equations that describe dynamic instability of microtubules in a tubulin solution.
Publication Information
Rezania, V., & Tuszynski, J. (2007). From a quantum mechanical description of the assembly processes in microtubules to their semiclassical nonlinear dynamics. Quantum Biosystems, 1(1), 1–20. Retrieved from http://www.quantumbiosystems.org
DOI
Notes
Item Type
Article
Language
English
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)
