Elsevier, Chemical Physics, (435), p. 14-20, 2014
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemphys.2014.03.001
Full text: Unavailable
A theoretical approach to stochastic searching of a small target is developed, which can be applied, for instance, to searching for a damaged site on the DNA molecule by a DNA repair enzyme. It is assumed that the searching molecule moves along a chain of sites by means of stochastic jumps to the adjacent positions (one-dimensional 'sliding'); the second motion models diffusion in three dimensions. A general expression is obtained for the flux to the damaged site. A special case is analyzed where the second motion is treated as effective 1D diffusion; the effective searching time is estimated. It is shown that the faster second motion shortens the searching time. A more realistic case where the second kind of motion leads to jumps not only to the adjacent site is also treated: it is shown that the diffusional search is facilitated even further.