Effect of transport and competition on ligand binding

We present a model to describe the physics of chemoreception in processes d etermined by competitive ligand binding. Our model describes the competitio n between various populations, such as ligands vs. blockers and receptors v s, decoys, in protein activation when diffusion is rate-determining. Full s patio-temporal solutions can be obtained numerically. The model structure i s kept simple enough as to permit its easy generalization to describe a lar ge subset of the manifold of possible situations occurring in nature. The p ower and simplicity of the proposed method are exhibited through the soluti on of several examples which are discussed in detail. (C) 1999 Elsevier Sci ence B.V. All rights reserved.