Effects of macromolecular crowding on the collapse of biopolymers

Experiments show that macromolecular crowding modestly reduces the size of intrinsically disordered proteins even at a volume fraction (ϕ) similar to that in the cytosol, whereas DNA undergoes a coil-to-globule transition at very small ϕ. We show using a combination of scaling arguments and simulati...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 114; no. 6; p. 068303
Main Authors Kang, Hongsuk, Pincus, Philip A, Hyeon, Changbong, Thirumalai, D
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 13.02.2015
Subjects
Computer Simulation
DNA - chemistry
Macromolecular Substances - chemistry
Models, Chemical
Nucleic Acid Conformation
Protein Conformation
Proteins - chemistry
Online AccessGet more information

Cover

More Information
Summary:Experiments show that macromolecular crowding modestly reduces the size of intrinsically disordered proteins even at a volume fraction (ϕ) similar to that in the cytosol, whereas DNA undergoes a coil-to-globule transition at very small ϕ. We show using a combination of scaling arguments and simulations that the polymer size R̅(g)(ϕ) depends on x=R̅(g)(0)/D, where D is the ϕ-dependent distance between the crowders. If x≲O(1), there is only a small decrease in R̅(g)(ϕ) as ϕ increases. When x≫O(1), a cooperative coil-to-globule transition is induced. Our theory quantitatively explains a number of experiments.
ISSN:1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.114.068303