Guangzhou Zou,
G. Anthony Gorry and
George N. Phillips, Jr.
W.M. Keck Center for Computational Biology,Department of Computer Science and
Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
Rice University, Houston, Texas 77251-1892
ABSTRACT
Following a novel computational formalism,
the thin filament of muscle can be modeled by
a computational machine containing a large
number of finite automata
that have one-to-one correspondence with
the constituent protein molecules [1].
Computer graphics can be used to
visualize the correspondence between
the states of finite automata and
the configurations of protein molecules according to
the structural data.
The dynamic simulation of the muscle filament
that corresponds to the concurrent state transitions
of finite automata can be
represented as a sequence of video images.
The kinetic and
structural knowledge
of individual protein molecules are, therefore,
integrated into
a coherent and functional system.
This type of computation and visualization
can also be very useful for
the investigation of molecular structure, function,
and interaction in various complex biological systems.