title: Quantifying protein diffusion and capture on filaments.
abstract: The functional relevance of regulating proteins is often limited to specific binding sites such as the ends of microtubules or actin-filaments. A localization of proteins on these functional sites is of great importance. We present a quantitative theory for a diffusion and capture process, where proteins diffuse on a filament and stop diffusing when reaching the filament's end. It is found that end-association after one-dimensional diffusion is the main source for tip-localization of such proteins. As a consequence, diffusion and capture is highly efficient in enhancing the reaction velocity of enzymatic reactions, where proteins and filament ends are to each other as enzyme and substrate. We show that the reaction velocity can effectively be described within a Michaelis-Menten framework. Together, one-dimensional diffusion and capture beats the (three-dimensional) Smoluchowski diffusion limit for the rate of protein association to filament ends.
authors.affiliation: Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics and Center for NanoScience, Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany; Nanosystems Initiative Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Emanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Reithmann
authors.affiliation: Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics and Center for NanoScience, Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany; Nanosystems Initiative Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Reese
authors.affiliation: Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics and Center for NanoScience, Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany; Nanosystems Initiative Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany. Electronic address: frey@lmu.de.
authors.forename: Erwin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Frey
mesh_terms: D004058:Diffusion; D008840:Microfilament Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological
chemical_list: D008840:Microfilament Proteins