A Strategy for Searching a Rare Event 21: Probability Distribution of Bindings

摘要

In molecular biology, the central dogma has been the most important framework to explain major processes to maintain life. The first step is transcription in which the genetic information of a very tiny section of DNA is transferred to a piece of mRNA. During the process, several proteins are involved, like RNA polymerase and transcription factors (TFs). Especially, the binding of a TF to the right segment of DNA is critical, and has been studied a lot since early seventies.2 For instance, a TF, called a lac repressor, makes gene expression regulate by site-specific binding to DNA, called a lac operon, in a living E. coli cell. The process is to search a rare event because a FT should find a right specific binding site among millions of sites on DNA.