Quantitative assessment of the relative contributions of steric repulsion and chemical interactions to macromolecular crowding
The term “macromolecular crowding” denotes the combined effects of high volume fractions of nominally unrelated macromolecules upon the equilibrium and transport properties of all macrosolutes, dilute as well as concentrated, in the crowded medium. We present a formal partitioning of the total crowd...
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| Published in | Biopolymers Vol. 99; no. 4; pp. 239 - 244 |
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| Main Author | |
| Format | Journal Article |
| Language | English |
| Published |
Hoboken
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company
01.04.2013
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| Subjects | |
| Online Access | Get full text |
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| Summary: | The term “macromolecular crowding” denotes the combined effects of high volume fractions of nominally unrelated macromolecules upon the equilibrium and transport properties of all macrosolutes, dilute as well as concentrated, in the crowded medium. We present a formal partitioning of the total crowding effect into contributions from steric exclusion (excluded volume) and weak, nonspecific attractive interactions between a concentrated “crowding agent” and reactant and product species present at trace concentration. A numerical example of the combined effect of both steric and chemical interactions between crowder and tracer upon the reversible dimerization of tracer is presented, based upon reasonable estimates of the magnitude of both repulsive and attractive interactions between tracer and crowder species. © 2012Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 99: 239–244, 2013. |
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| Bibliography: | Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, NIH This article is a U.S. Government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America. This work is dedicated to the memory of Professor Henryk Eisenberg, under whose guidance the author was first introduced to the field of physical biochemistry. The interest in obtaining a quantitative understanding of the behavior of biological macromolecules that he inspired in me endures to this day. ark:/67375/WNG-CBJ07QSZ-S ArticleID:BIP22163 This article was originally published online as an accepted preprint. The "Published Online" date corresponds to the preprint version. You can request a copy of the preprint by emailing the Biopolymers editorial office at biopolymers@wiley.com istex:567CEFC22BAEDEB8DC4171A2B98F3B91C2A393CC This article was originally published online as an accepted preprint. The “Published Online” date corresponds to the preprint version. You can request a copy of the preprint by emailing the Biopolymers editorial office at biopolymers@wiley.com ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
| ISSN: | 0006-3525 1097-0282 |
| DOI: | 10.1002/bip.22163 |