How are molecular crowding and the spatial organization of a biopolymer interrelated
Abstract
In a crowded cellular interior, dissolved biomolecules or crowders exert excluded volume effects on other biomolecules, which in turn control various processes including protein aggregation and chromosome organization. As a result of these effects, a long chain molecule can be phase-separated into a condensed state, redistributing the surrounding crowders. Using computer simulations and a theoretical approach, we study the interrelationship between molecular crowding and chain organization. In a parameter space of biological relevance, the distributions of monomers and crowders follow a simple relationship: the sum of their volume fractions rescaled by their size remains constant. Beyond a physical picture of molecular crowding it offers, this finding explains a few key features of what has been known about chromosome organization in an E. coli cell.
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Chanil Jeon, Changbong Hyeon, Youngkyun Jung, Bae-Yeun Ha
(2016).
How are molecular crowding and the spatial organization of a biopolymer interrelated. UWSpace.
http://hdl.handle.net/10012/12616
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