MFAモデルによるT4ファージDNAの大腸菌への注入過程

抄録

Based on the experimentally determined infection process, Movable Finite Automaton (MFA) models of bacteriophage (phage) T4 are proposed, which describe the process of adsorption and injection of DNA into E. coli, starting from the initial state of floating.
An MFA model for the phage T4 is constructed with eight parts of the phage structure. Using the model system, the infection process of phage T4 is simulated including six discrete stages; i.e., floating, landing on the host bacterium, E. coli, searching for receptor LPS, structural change of the baseplate, contraction of the tail sheath and injection of DNA. Each MFA model of eight parts has a state function(Qⁿ) and some transition functions(f_Qⁿ) based on biophysical considerations. Qⁿ has a number of states that describe the chage of action in each part. In the execution of 3D simulation which utilized OpenGL, the actions of each stages can be reasonably well reproduced. MFA models for phage T4 and the phage actions at each stage are described briefly, and the results and problems of this model system are discussed.