title: Nanopore gating with an anchored polymer in a switching electrolyte bias.
abstract: In this work, we theoretically study the interaction between a solid state membrane equipped with a nanopore and a tethered, negatively charged polymer chain subjected to a time-dependent applied electrolyte bias. In order to describe the movement of the chain in the biomolecule-membrane system immersed in an electrolyte solution, Brownian dynamics is used. We show that we can control the polymer's equilibrium position with various applied electrolyte biases: for a sufficiently positive bias, the chain extends inside the pore, and the removal of the bias causes the polymer to leave the pore. Corresponding to a driven process, we find that the time it takes for a biomolecular chain to enter and extend into a nanopore in a positive bias almost increases linearly with chain length while the amount of time it takes for a polymer chain to escape the nanopore is mainly governed by diffusion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Clarkson University, Potsdam, New York 13699, USA.
authors.forename: Craig C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Wells
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Clarkson University, Potsdam, New York 13699, USA.
authors.forename: Ining A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Jou
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Clarkson University, Potsdam, New York 13699, USA.
authors.forename: Dmitriy V
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Melnikov
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Clarkson University, Potsdam, New York 13699, USA.
authors.forename: Maria E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Gracheva