Crowding-induced polymer trapping in a channel
Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review
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Detail(s)
Original language | English |
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Article number | 054502 |
Journal / Publication | Physical Review E |
Volume | 104 |
Issue number | 5 |
Online published | 8 Nov 2021 |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2021 |
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DOI | DOI |
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Attachment(s) | Documents
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Link to Scopus | https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85119100024&origin=recordpage |
Permanent Link | https://scholars.cityu.edu.hk/en/publications/publication(c30a35d5-e30f-45f3-b3fe-984118b96e25).html |
Abstract
In this work, we report an intriguing phenomenon: crowding-induced polymer trapping in a channel. Using Langevin dynamics simulations and analytical calculations, we find that for a polymer confined in a channel, crowding particles can push a polymer into the channel corner through inducing an effective polymer-corner attraction due to the depletion effect. This phenomenon is referred to as polymer trapping. The occurrence of polymer trapping requires a minimum volume fraction of crowders, Φ*, which scales as Φ* ∼ (ac/Lp)1/3 for ac ≫ am and Φ* ∼ (ac/Lp)1/3(ac/am)1/2 for ac ≪ am, where ac is the crowder diameter, am is the monomer diameter, and Lp is the polymer persistence length. For DNA, Φ* is estimated to be around 0.25 for crowders with ac = 2 nm. We find that Φ* also strongly depends on the shape of the channel cross section, and Φ* is much smaller for a triangle channel than a square channel. The polymer trapping leads to a nearly fully stretched polymer conformation along a channel corner, which may have practical applications, such as full stretching of DNA for the nanochannel-based genome mapping technology.
Research Area(s)
- FREE-ENERGY, GENE-EXPRESSION, DNA-MOLECULES, NANOCHANNEL, CHAIN, CONFINEMENT, STATE, CONFORMATION, COMPACTION, EXTENSION
Citation Format(s)
Crowding-induced polymer trapping in a channel. / Chen, Jialu; Sun, Liang; Wang, Simin et al.
In: Physical Review E, Vol. 104, No. 5, 054502, 11.2021.
In: Physical Review E, Vol. 104, No. 5, 054502, 11.2021.
Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review
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