title: Identity of distributions of direct uphill and downhill translocation times for particles traversing membrane channels.
abstract: We study the distribution of direct translocation times for particles passing through membrane channels connecting two reservoirs. The direct translocation time is a conditional first-passage time defined as the residence time of the particle in the channel while passing to the other side of the membrane directly, i.e., without returning to the reservoir from which it entered. We show that the distributions of direct translocation times are identical for translocation in both directions, independent of any asymmetry in the potential across the channel and, hence, the translocation probabilities.
authors.affiliation: Mathematical and Statistical Computing Laboratory, Division of Computational Bioscience, Center for Information Technology, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Alexander M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Berezhkovskii
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hummer
authors.forename: Sergey M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Bezrukov
mesh_terms: D001692:Biological Transport / Q000502:physiology*; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000378:metabolism*; D008433:Mathematics; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010316:Particle Size
chemical_list: D007473:Ion Channels