6,798 research outputs found
Molecular Electroporation and the Transduction of Oligoarginines
Certain short polycations, such as TAT and polyarginine, rapidly pass through
the plasma membranes of mammalian cells by an unknown mechanism called
transduction as well as by endocytosis and macropinocytosis. These
cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) promise to be medically useful when fused to
biologically active peptides. I offer a simple model in which one or more CPPs
and the phosphatidylserines of the inner leaflet form a kind of capacitor with
a voltage in excess of 180 mV, high enough to create a molecular electropore.
The model is consistent with an empirical upper limit on the cargo peptide of
40--60 amino acids and with experimental data on how the transduction of a
polyarginine-fluorophore into mouse C2C12 myoblasts depends on the number of
arginines in the CPP and on the CPP concentration. The model makes three
testable predictions.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure
Efficiency at maximum power of interacting molecular machines
We investigate the efficiency of systems of molecular motors operating at
maximum power. We consider two models of kinesin motors on a microtubule: for
both the simplified and the detailed model, we find that the many-body
exclusion effect enhances the efficiency at maximum power of the many-motor
system, with respect to the single motor case. Remarkably, we find that this
effect occurs in a limited region of the system parameters, compatible with the
biologically relevant range.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Non-equilibrium mechanics and dynamics of motor activated gels
The mechanics of cells is strongly affected by molecular motors that generate
forces in the cellular cytoskeleton. We develop a model for cytoskeletal
networks driven out of equilibrium by molecular motors exerting transient
contractile stresses. Using this model we show how motor activity can
dramatically increase the network's bulk elastic moduli. We also show how motor
binding kinetics naturally leads to enhanced low-frequency stress fluctuations
that result in non-equilibrium diffusive motion within an elastic network, as
seen in recent \emph{in vitro} and \emph{in vivo} experiments.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure
No many-scallop theorem: Collective locomotion of reciprocal swimmers
To achieve propulsion at low Reynolds number, a swimmer must deform in a way
that is not invariant under time-reversal symmetry; this result is known as the
scallop theorem. We show here that there is no many-scallop theorem. We
demonstrate that two active particles undergoing reciprocal deformations can
swim collectively; moreover, polar particles also experience effective
long-range interactions. These results are derived for a minimal dimers model,
and generalized to more complex geometries on the basis of symmetry and scaling
arguments. We explain how such cooperative locomotion can be realized
experimentally by shaking a collection of soft particles with a homogeneous
external field
Mean encounter times for cell adhesion in hydrodynamic flow: analytical progress by dimensional reduction
For a cell moving in hydrodynamic flow above a wall, translational and
rotational degrees of freedom are coupled by the Stokes equation. In addition,
there is a close coupling of convection and diffusion due to the
position-dependent mobility. These couplings render calculation of the mean
encounter time between cell surface receptors and ligands on the substrate very
difficult. Here we show for a two-dimensional model system how analytical
progress can be achieved by treating motion in the vertical direction by an
effective reaction term in the mean first passage time equation for the
rotational degree of freedom. The strength of this reaction term can either be
estimated from equilibrium considerations or used as a fit parameter. Our
analytical results are confirmed by computer simulations and allow to assess
the relative roles of convection and diffusion for different scaling regimes of
interest.Comment: Reftex, postscript figures include
Time scale of entropic segregation of flexible polymers in confinement: Implications for chromosome segregation in filamentous bacteria
We report molecular dynamics simulations of the segregation of two
overlapping chains in cylindrical confinement. We find that the entropic
repulsion between the chains can be sufficiently strong to cause segregation on
a time scale that is short compared to the one for diffusion. This result
implies that entropic driving forces are sufficiently strong to cause rapid
bacterial chromosome segregation.Comment: Minor changes. Added some references, corrected the labels in figure
6 and reformatted in two columns. Also added reference to published version
in PR
Mechanics and force transmission in soft composites of rods in elastic gels
We report detailed theoretical investigations of the micro-mechanics and bulk
elastic properties of composites consisting of randomly distributed stiff
fibers embedded in an elastic matrix in two and three dimensions. Recent
experiments published in Physical Review Letters [102, 188303 (2009)] have
suggested that the inclusion of stiff microtubules in a softer, nearly
incompressible biopolymer matrix can lead to emergent compressibility. This can
be understood in terms of the enhancement of the compressibility of the
composite relative to its shear compliance as a result of the addition of stiff
rod-like inclusions. We show that the Poisson's ratio of such a composite
evolves with increasing rod density towards a particular value, or {\em fixed
point}, independent of the material properties of the matrix, so long as it has
a finite initial compressibility. This fixed point is in three
dimensions and in two dimensions. Our results suggest an important
role for stiff filaments such as microtubules and stress fibers in cell
mechanics. At the same time, our work has a wider elasticity context, with
potential applications to composite elastic media with a wide separation of
scales in stiffness of its constituents such as carbon nanotube-polymer
composites, which have been shown to have highly tunable mechanics.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure
Are stress-free membranes really 'tensionless'?
In recent years it has been argued that the tension parameter driving the
fluctuations of fluid membranes, differs from the imposed lateral stress, the
'frame tension'. In particular, stress-free membranes were predicted to have a
residual fluctuation tension. In the present paper, this argument is
reconsidered and shown to be inherently inconsistent -- in the sense that a
linearized theory, the Monge model, is used to predict a nonlinear effect.
Furthermore, numerical simulations of one-dimensional stiff membranes are
presented which clearly demonstrate, first, that the internal 'intrinsic'
stress in membranes indeed differs from the frame tension as conjectured, but
second, that the fluctuations are nevertheless driven by the frame tension.
With this assumption, the predictions of the Monge model agree excellently with
the simulation data for stiffness and tension values spanning several orders of
magnitude
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