2019/05/13 by Aidan I. Brown, Brown, Aidan I, Laura M. Westrate +3 · 2 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Neuroscience · #Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #Diffusion and Search Dynamics #FOS: Biological sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Neural dynamics and brain function #Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #Subcellular Processes (q-bio.SC)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1905.05320
openalex publication_date 2019/05/13 · openalex created_date 2022/07/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We investigate diffusive search on planar networks, motivated by tubular\norganelle networks in cell biology that contain molecules searching for\nreaction partners and binding sites. Exact calculation of the diffusive mean\nfirst-passage time on a spatial network is used to characterize the typical\nsearch time as a function of network connectivity. We find that global\nstructural properties --- the total edge length and number of loops --- are\nsufficient to largely determine network exploration times for a variety of both\nsynthetic planar networks and organelle morphologies extracted from living\ncells. For synthetic networks on a lattice, we predict the search time\ndependence on these global structural parameters by connecting with percolation\ntheory, providing a bridge from irregular real-world networks to a simpler\nphysical model. The dependence of search time on global network structural\nproperties suggests that network architecture can be designed for efficient\nsearch without controlling the precise arrangement of connections.\nSpecifically, increasing the number of loops substantially decreases search\ntimes, pointing to a potential physical mechanism for regulating reaction rates\nwithin organelle network structures.\n