Cellular Automata Simulation of Muscle Regulation

Description

Protein molecules on the muscle thin filament are mapped onto arrays of finite automata, the interaction between them is represented by localized automata connections and the cooperativity is described by a set of transition rules. Thin filaments of muscle can, therefore, be simulated by computational machines. The simulations can be visualized by three dimensional graphic animations based on the structural data of muscle proteins.

Simulation Package


Contact Dr. Zou at zou@rice.edu for information and questions about this package.

3D Animation


This animation shows the simulated bindings of myosin S1 to the thin filament in response to a calcium burst. The time step in the simulation equals to about 10 ms in the real muscle system ('mpeg_play' is needed to view this movie). Contact zou@rice.edu for information of the animation package.

References

  1. Zou, G., and Phillips, G.N. Jr., 1994. A Cellular Automaton Model for the Regulatory Behavior of Muscle Thin Filaments. Biophys. J. 67:11-28.
  2. Zou, G., Gorry, G.A., and Phillips, G.N. Jr. 1994. Visualization of Dynamic Simulations of Muscle Thin Filaments. to appear in J. Mol. Graph .