A bacterium of volume contains copies of a repressor protein.

PHYSICS · Multi-part · Fermi University Physics · Biophysics & Medical Physics · Physical foundations of the living cell · Physical foundations of the living cell

Life at Thermal Energy, Ch The scales of life and the thermal energy

Problem

A bacterium of volume 1 fL1\,\mathrm{fL} contains 55 copies of a repressor protein. ((a)) What concentration, in nanomolar, does this copy number correspond to? Give your answer to two significant figures. ((b)) Separately, the repressor binds its operator site with an energy of 8 kBT8\,k_BT at 298 K298\,\mathrm{K}, where kBT=4.11 pN nmk_BT = 4.11\,\mathrm{pN\,nm}. Express this binding energy in kJ mol−1\mathrm{kJ\,mol^{-1}}.

Browse the problem library