title: Polymer translocation in crowded environments.
abstract: We study the effect of the crowded environments on the translocation of a polymer through a pore in a membrane. By systematically treating the entropic penalty due to crowding, we show that the translocation dynamics are significantly altered, leading to novel scaling behaviors of the translocation time. We also observe new and qualitatively different translocation regimes depending upon the extent of crowding, transmembrane chemical potential asymmetry, and polymer length.
authors.affiliation: School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, California 95344, USA.
authors.forename: Ajay
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gopinathan
authors.forename: Yong Woon
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D001704:Biopolymers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D008566:Membranes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D008956:Models, Chemical
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers; D004247:DNA