Stochastic protein production and time-dependent current fluctuations

Abstract

Translation is the cellular process in which ribosomes make proteins from information encoded on messenger RNA. We model this process using driven lattice gases and take into account the finite lifetime of mRNA. The stochastic properties of the translation process can then be determined from the time-dependent current fluctuations of the lattice gas model. We illustrate our ideas with a totally asymmetric exclusion process with extended objects.