Analytical and numerical studies of sequence dependence of passage times for translocation of heterobiopolymers through nanopores.
We consider chaperone-assisted translocation of biopolymers with two distinct monomers or bases A and B, with the size of the chaperones being lambda sigma, where sigma is a monomer's size. The probability that A and B are neighbors in the biopolymer is P(AB). A master equation is used, together with the detailed-balanced condition, in order to derive analytical results for the statistics of the first-passage times of the biopolymer as a function of P(AB), lambda, and the biopolymer's configuration. Monte Carlo simulations have also been carried out in order to compute the same quantities for biopolymers with 100-900 monomers and several lambda. The results indicate nontrivial dependence of the variance of the translocation times on the biopolymer's composition. It is also shown that measurements of the first two moments of the biopolymer's first-passage time distribution provide information on its length and ordering. Moreover, the probability density function Q(t) of the first-passage times is almost Gaussian for small chaperone size lambda, but becomes non-Gaussian as lambda increases. At large times, Q(t) decays exponentially.
Abdolvahab
R H
RH
Department of Physics, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran 11155-9161, Iran.
Roshani
Farinaz
F
Nourmohammad
Armita
A
Sahimi
Muhammad
M
Tabar
M Reza Rahimi
MR
D001704:Biopolymers / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology; D016062:Porosity; D011336:Probability; D011789:Quantum Theory; D013997:Time Factors
D001704:Biopolymers