COMPUTER MODELING OF POLYMER DECOMPOSITION BY ACTIVE INTERACTIONS WITH ENZYME MOLECULES - A SIMULATION OF RNA DIGESTION BY RIBONUCLEASE

A model of 200 polymer molecules each 70 units of length with randomly located susceptible and resistant links was elaborated. The productio n of mono-, di-, tri-unit and other fragments in repeating random inte ractions of polymer (P) with the polymer - cleaving enzyme (E) was cal culated. Analysis of the calculations performed that the polymer molec ules with an initial count of 70 - units disappeared, imitating the fi rst order kinetics with a half-life of about 0.37 x 10(3) P/E interact ions. The production of fragments 30-69 units long was small and the l ife of those molecules was limited to arrange from 0.5 x 10(3) to 5 x 10(3)P/E interactions. The mean polymer length decreases to one third at 10(3) P/E interactions. The production of single-unit fragments fol lowed a sigmoidal relationship. The first reaction period, with increa sing number of single-unit fragments per 10(3) P/E interactions, corre sponded to a decrease in the mean polymer length to about 10 units. Th en the production of one-unit fragments decreased and stopped at about 10(5) P/E interactions. This model could be used for analysis of RNA fragmentation processes by any number of RNA-ribonuclease interactions . Further development of this model would be of help in understanding the effect of various nucleotide sequences on the RNA digestion proces s.