Diffusion in an elastic medium: A model for macromolecule transport across the nuclear pore complex

Rajarshi Chakrabarti, Ananya Debnath and K.L. Sebastian

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2014, vol. 404, issue C, 65-78

Abstract: Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are very selective filters that sit on the membrane of the nucleus and monitor the transport between the cytoplasm and the nucleoplasm. For the central plug of NPC two models have been suggested in the literature. The first suggests that the plug is a reversible hydrogel while the other suggests that it is a polymer brush. Here we propose a model for the transport of a protein through the plug, which is general enough to cover both the models. The protein stretches the plug and creates a local deformation, which together with the protein, we refer to as the bubble. We start with the free energy for creation of the bubble and consider its motion within the plug. The relevant coordinate is the center of the bubble which executes random walk. We find that for faster relaxation of the gel, the diffusion of the bubble is greater.

Keywords: Nuclear pore complex; Diffusion of macromolecules; Brush vs gel picture of nuclear pore complex; Enhancement in diffusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037843711400168X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:404:y:2014:i:c:p:65-78

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2014.02.059

Access Statistics for this article

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications is currently edited by K. A. Dawson, J. O. Indekeu, H.E. Stanley and C. Tsallis

More articles in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().