title: Mechanisms for facilitated target location and the optimal number of molecules in the diffusion search process.
abstract: We investigate the number N of molecules needed to perform independent diffusion in order to achieve bonding of a single molecule to a specific site in time t(0). For a certain range of values of t(0), an increase from N to kN molecules (k>1) results in the decrease of search time from t(0) to t(0)/k. In this regime, increasing the number of molecules is an effective way of speeding up the search process. However when N> or =N0 (optimal number of N) the reduction of time from t(0) to t(0)/k can be achieved only by an exponentially large increase in the number of molecules [from N to N exp(ck) for some c>0].
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, University of Washington, Box 354350, Seattle, Washington 98195-4350, USA. burdzy@math.washington.edu
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Burdzy
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hołyst
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D001703:Biophysics / Q000379:methods*; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D004058:Diffusion; D008954:Models, Biological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011485:Protein Binding; D013997:Time Factors