Confining potential when a biopolymer filament reptates.
Using single-molecule fluorescence imaging, we track Brownian motion perpendicular to the contour of tightly entangled F-actin filaments and extract the confining potential. The chain localization presents a small-displacement Hookean regime followed by a large amplitude regime where the effective restoring force is independent of displacement. The implied heterogeneity characterized by a distribution of tube width is modeled.
Wang
Bo
B
Departments of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801 USA.
Guan
Juan
J
Anthony
Stephen M
SM
Bae
Sung Chul
SC
Schweizer
Kenneth S
KS
Granick
Steve
S
D000199:Actins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D019281:Dimerization; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular
D000199:Actins