1
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Aporvari MS, McGorty R, Robertson-Anderson RM. Protocol for analyzing DNA dynamics in the presence of crowders and confined within cell-sized droplets. STAR Protoc 2024; 5:103249. [PMID: 39120975 PMCID: PMC11364010 DOI: 10.1016/j.xpro.2024.103249] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2024] [Revised: 06/28/2024] [Accepted: 07/18/2024] [Indexed: 08/11/2024] Open
Abstract
Here, we present a protocol for encapsulating DNA molecules under crowded conditions within cell-sized lipid-coated droplets. We describe steps for preparing a lipid-oil mixture and adding an aqueous solution containing DNA, which, when mixed, forms water-in-oil droplets of radii between ∼5 and 100 μm. We then detail procedures for quantifying the dynamics of DNA molecules in these droplets by analyzing fluorescence microscopy time series using differential dynamic microscopy. This protocol can be utilized to investigate DNA transport within a range of biomimetic and crowded environments. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Aporvari et al.1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mehdi Shafiei Aporvari
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, CA 92110, USA; Department of Physics, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA
| | - Ryan McGorty
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, CA 92110, USA.
| | - Rae M Robertson-Anderson
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, CA 92110, USA.
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2
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Neill P, Crist N, McGorty R, Robertson-Anderson R. Enzymatic cleaving of entangled DNA rings drives scale-dependent rheological trajectories. SOFT MATTER 2024; 20:2750-2766. [PMID: 38440846 DOI: 10.1039/d3sm01641b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/06/2024]
Abstract
DNA, which naturally occurs in linear, ring, and supercoiled topologies, frequently undergoes enzyme-driven topological conversion and fragmentation in vivo, enabling it to perform a variety of functions within the cell. In vitro, highly concentrated DNA polymers form entanglements that yield viscoelastic properties dependent on the topologies and lengths of the DNA. Enzyme-driven alterations of DNA size and shape therefore offer a means of designing active materials with programmable viscoelastic properties. Here, we incorporate multi-site restriction endonucleases into dense DNA solutions to linearize and fragment circular DNA molecules. We pair optical tweezers microrheology with differential dynamic microscopy and single-molecule tracking to measure the linear and nonlinear viscoelastic response and transport properties of entangled DNA solutions over a wide range of spatiotemporal scales throughout the course of enzymatic digestion. We show that, at short timescales, relative to the relaxation timescales of the polymers, digestion of these 'topologically-active' fluids initially causes an increase in elasticity and relaxation times followed by a gradual decrease. Conversely, for long timescales, linear viscoelastic moduli exhibit signatures of increasing elasticity. DNA diffusion, likewise, becomes increasingly slowed, in direct opposition to the short-time behavior. We hypothesize that this scale-dependent rheology arises from the population of small DNA fragments, which increases as digestion proceeds, driving self-association of larger fragments via depletion interactions, giving rise to slow relaxation modes of clusters of entangled chains, interspersed among shorter unentangled fragments. While these slow modes likely dominate at long times, they are presumably frozen out in the short-time limit, which instead probes the faster relaxation modes of the unentangled population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip Neill
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA 92104, USA.
| | - Natalie Crist
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA 92104, USA.
| | - Ryan McGorty
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA 92104, USA.
| | - Rae Robertson-Anderson
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA 92104, USA.
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3
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Tan F, Wang J, Yan R, Zhao N. Forced and spontaneous translocation dynamics of a semiflexible active polymer in two dimensions. SOFT MATTER 2024; 20:1120-1132. [PMID: 38224190 DOI: 10.1039/d3sm01409f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/16/2024]
Abstract
Polymer translocation is a fundamental topic in non-equilibrium physics and is crucially important to many biological processes in life. In the present work, we adopt two-dimensional Langevin dynamics simulations to study the forced and spontaneous translocation dynamics of an active filament. The influence of polymer stiffness on the underlying dynamics is explicitly analyzed. For the forced translocation, the results show a robust stiffness-induced inhibition, and the translocation time exhibits a dual-exponent scaling relationship with the bending modulus. Tension propagation (TP) is also examined, where we find prominent modifications in terms of both activity and stiffness. For spontaneous translocation into a pure solvent, the translocation time is almost independent of the polymer stiffness. However, when the polymer is translocated into a porous medium, an intriguing non-monotonic alteration of translocation time with increasing chain stiffness is demonstrated. The semiflexible chain is beneficial for translocation while the rigid chain is not conducive. Stiffness regulation on the diffusion dynamics of the polymer in porous media shows a consistent scenario. The interplay of activity, stiffness, and porous crowding provides a new mechanism for understanding the non-trivial translocation dynamics of an active filament in complex environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fei Tan
- College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China.
| | - Jingli Wang
- College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China.
| | - Ran Yan
- College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China.
| | - Nanrong Zhao
- College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China.
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4
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Veldsman WP, Yang C, Zhang Z, Huang Y, Chowdhury D, Zhang L. Structural and Functional Disparities within the Human Gut Virome in Terms of Genome Topology and Representative Genome Selection. Viruses 2024; 16:134. [PMID: 38257834 PMCID: PMC10820185 DOI: 10.3390/v16010134] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2023] [Revised: 01/12/2024] [Accepted: 01/16/2024] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Circularity confers protection to viral genomes where linearity falls short, thereby fulfilling the form follows function aphorism. However, a shift away from morphology-based classification toward the molecular and ecological classification of viruses is currently underway within the field of virology. Recent years have seen drastic changes in the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses' operational definitions of viruses, particularly for the tailed phages that inhabit the human gut. After the abolition of the order Caudovirales, these tailed phages are best defined as members of the class Caudoviricetes. To determine the epistemological value of genome topology in the context of the human gut virome, we designed a set of seven experiments to assay the impact of genome topology and representative viral selection on biological interpretation. Using Oxford Nanopore long reads for viral genome assembly coupled with Illumina short-read polishing, we showed that circular and linear virus genomes differ remarkably in terms of genome quality, GC skew, transfer RNA gene frequency, structural variant frequency, cross-reference functional annotation (COG, KEGG, Pfam, and TIGRfam), state-of-the-art marker-based classification, and phage-host interaction. Furthermore, the disparity profile changes during dereplication. In particular, our phage-host interaction results demonstrated that proportional abundances cannot be meaningfully compared without due regard for genome topology and dereplication threshold, which necessitates the need for standardized reporting. As a best practice guideline, we recommend that comparative studies of the human gut virome always report the ratio of circular to linear viral genomes along with the dereplication threshold so that structural and functional metrics can be placed into context when assessing biologically relevant metagenomic properties such as proportional abundance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Werner P. Veldsman
- Department of Computer Science, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China; (W.P.V.); (C.Y.); (Z.Z.)
| | - Chao Yang
- Department of Computer Science, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China; (W.P.V.); (C.Y.); (Z.Z.)
| | - Zhenmiao Zhang
- Department of Computer Science, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China; (W.P.V.); (C.Y.); (Z.Z.)
| | | | - Debajyoti Chowdhury
- School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong SAR, China;
- Computational Medicine Laboratory, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Lu Zhang
- Department of Computer Science, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China; (W.P.V.); (C.Y.); (Z.Z.)
- Institute for Research and Continuing Education, Hong Kong Baptist University, Shenzhen 518057, China
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5
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Hu M, Chen H, Wang H, Burov S, Barkai E, Wang D. Triggering Gaussian-to-Exponential Transition of Displacement Distribution in Polymer Nanocomposites via Adsorption-Induced Trapping. ACS NANO 2023; 17:21708-21718. [PMID: 37879044 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.3c06897] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2023]
Abstract
In many disordered systems, the diffusion of classical particles is described by a displacement distribution P(x, t) that displays exponential tails instead of Gaussian statistics expected for Brownian motion. However, the experimental demonstration of control of this behavior by increasing the disorder strength has remained challenging. In this work, we explore the Gaussian-to-exponential transition by using diffusion of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) in attractive nanoparticle-polymer mixtures and controlling the volume fraction of the nanoparticles. In this work, we find "knobs", namely nanoparticle concentration and interaction, which enable the change in the shape of P(x,t) in a well-defined way. The Gaussian-to-exponential transition is consistent with a modified large deviation approach for a continuous time random walk and also with Monte Carlo simulations involving a microscopic model of polymer trapping via reversible adsorption to the nanoparticle surface. Our work bears significance in unraveling the fundamental physics behind the exponential decay of the displacement distribution at the tails, which is commonly observed in soft materials and nanomaterials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ming Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jilin 130022, People's Republic of China
- University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, People's Republic of China
| | - Hongbo Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jilin 130022, People's Republic of China
| | - Hongru Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jilin 130022, People's Republic of China
- University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, People's Republic of China
| | - Stanislav Burov
- Department of Physics, Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
| | - Eli Barkai
- Department of Physics, Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
| | - Dapeng Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jilin 130022, People's Republic of China
- University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, People's Republic of China
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6
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Safi Samghabadi F, Slim AH, Smith MW, Chabi M, Conrad JC. Dynamics of Filamentous Viruses in Polyelectrolyte Solutions. Macromolecules 2022. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.2c01641] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Farshad Safi Samghabadi
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas77204, United States
| | - Ali H. Slim
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas77204, United States
| | - Maxwell W. Smith
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas77204, United States
| | - Maede Chabi
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas77204, United States
| | - Jacinta C. Conrad
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas77204, United States
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7
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Peddireddy KR, Clairmont R, Neill P, McGorty R, Robertson-Anderson RM. Optical-Tweezers-integrating-Differential-Dynamic-Microscopy maps the spatiotemporal propagation of nonlinear strains in polymer blends and composites. Nat Commun 2022; 13:5180. [PMID: 36056012 PMCID: PMC9440072 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32876-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2022] [Accepted: 08/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
How local stresses propagate through polymeric fluids, and, more generally, how macromolecular dynamics give rise to viscoelasticity are open questions vital to wide-ranging scientific and industrial fields. Here, to unambiguously connect polymer dynamics to force response, and map the deformation fields that arise in macromolecular materials, we present Optical-Tweezers-integrating-Differential -Dynamic-Microscopy (OpTiDMM) that simultaneously imposes local strains, measures resistive forces, and analyzes the motion of the surrounding polymers. Our measurements with blends of ring and linear polymers (DNA) and their composites with stiff polymers (microtubules) uncover an unexpected resonant response, in which strain alignment, superdiffusivity, and elasticity are maximized when the strain rate is comparable to the entanglement rate. Microtubules suppress this resonance, while substantially increasing elastic storage, due to varying degrees to which the polymers buildup, stretch and flow along the strain path, and configurationally relax induced stress. More broadly, the rich multi-scale coupling of mechanics and dynamics afforded by OpTiDDM, empowers its interdisciplinary use to elucidate non-trivial phenomena that sculpt stress propagation dynamics-critical to commercial applications and cell mechanics alike.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karthik R Peddireddy
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, 92110, USA
| | - Ryan Clairmont
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, 92110, USA
| | - Philip Neill
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, 92110, USA
| | - Ryan McGorty
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, 92110, USA
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8
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Michieletto D, Neill P, Weir S, Evans D, Crist N, Martinez VA, Robertson-Anderson RM. Topological digestion drives time-varying rheology of entangled DNA fluids. Nat Commun 2022; 13:4389. [PMID: 35902575 PMCID: PMC9334285 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31828-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2021] [Accepted: 07/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding and controlling the rheology of polymeric complex fluids that are pushed out-of-equilibrium is a fundamental problem in both industry and biology. For example, to package, repair, and replicate DNA, cells use enzymes to constantly manipulate DNA topology, length, and structure. Inspired by this feat, here we engineer and study DNA-based complex fluids that undergo enzymatically-driven topological and architectural alterations via restriction endonuclease (RE) reactions. We show that these systems display time-dependent rheological properties that depend on the concentrations and properties of the comprising DNA and REs. Through time-resolved microrheology experiments and Brownian Dynamics simulations, we show that conversion of supercoiled to linear DNA topology leads to a monotonic increase in viscosity. On the other hand, the viscosity of entangled linear DNA undergoing fragmentation displays a universal decrease that we rationalise using living polymer theory. Finally, to showcase the tunability of these behaviours, we design a DNA fluid that exhibits a time-dependent increase, followed by a temporally-gated decrease, of its viscosity. Our results present a class of polymeric fluids that leverage naturally occurring enzymes to drive diverse time-varying rheology by performing architectural alterations to the constituents.
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Affiliation(s)
- D Michieletto
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Peter Guthrie Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3FD, UK.
- MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH4 2XU, UK.
| | - P Neill
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, CA, 92110, USA
| | - S Weir
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, CA, 92110, USA
| | - D Evans
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Peter Guthrie Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3FD, UK
| | - N Crist
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, CA, 92110, USA
| | - V A Martinez
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Peter Guthrie Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3FD, UK
| | - R M Robertson-Anderson
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, CA, 92110, USA.
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9
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Abstract
Recent years have seen substantial efforts aimed at constructing artificial cells from various molecular components with the aim of mimicking the processes, behaviours and architectures found in biological systems. Artificial cell development ultimately aims to produce model constructs that progress our understanding of biology, as well as forming the basis for functional bio-inspired devices that can be used in fields such as therapeutic delivery, biosensing, cell therapy and bioremediation. Typically, artificial cells rely on a bilayer membrane chassis and have fluid aqueous interiors to mimic biological cells. However, a desire to more accurately replicate the gel-like properties of intracellular and extracellular biological environments has driven increasing efforts to build cell mimics based on hydrogels. This has enabled researchers to exploit some of the unique functional properties of hydrogels that have seen them deployed in fields such as tissue engineering, biomaterials and drug delivery. In this Review, we explore how hydrogels can be leveraged in the context of artificial cell development. We also discuss how hydrogels can potentially be incorporated within the next generation of artificial cells to engineer improved biological mimics and functional microsystems.
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10
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Li J. Role of ergodicity, aging, and Gaussianity in resolving the origins of biomolecule subdiffusion. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:16050-16057. [PMID: 35731614 DOI: 10.1039/d2cp01161a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
The internal motions of biomolecules are essential to their function. Although biological macromolecules conventionally show subdiffusive dynamics, only recently has subdiffusion been associated with non-ergodicity. These findings have stimulated new questions in biophysics and statistical mechanics. Is non-ergodic subdiffusion a general strategy shared by biomolecules? What underlying mechanisms are responsible for it? Here, we performed extensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to characterize the internal dynamics of six different biomolecules, ranging from single or double-stranded DNA, a single domain protein (KRAS), two globular proteins (PGK and SHP2), to an intrinsically disordered protein (SNAP-25). We found that the subdiffusive behavior of these biomolecules falls into two classes. The internal motion of the first three cases is ergodic subdiffusion and can be interpreted by fractional Brownian motion (FBM), while the latter three cases involve non-ergodic subdiffusion and can be modeled by mixed origins of continuous-time random walk (CTRW) and FBM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Li
- School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
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11
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Lu Y, Liu XY, Hu GH. Double-Spring Model for Nanoparticle Diffusion in a Polymer Network. Macromolecules 2022. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.2c00257] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Yu Lu
- School of Mechanics and Engineering Science, Shanghai Institute of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mechanics in Energy Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, P. R. China
| | - Xin-Yue Liu
- School of Mechanics and Engineering Science, Shanghai Institute of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mechanics in Energy Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, P. R. China
| | - Guo-Hui Hu
- School of Mechanics and Engineering Science, Shanghai Institute of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mechanics in Energy Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, P. R. China
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12
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Chen Y, Yan R, Zhao N. Passive and active tracer dynamics in polymer solutions with isotropic-to-nematic phase transition. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:7415-7429. [PMID: 35266498 DOI: 10.1039/d2cp00323f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Macromolecular crowding plays a crucial role in determining the dynamics in a living cell. We adopt Langevin dynamics simulations to investigate the anomalous diffusion dynamics of passive and active particles in a solution of polymer chains with tunable stiffness. The solution's anisotropic feature is modulated by changing both the polymer stiffness and volume fraction, where isotropic-to-nematic phase transition is involved. Our results demonstrate the significant impact of polymer flexibility on the dynamics of both passive and active probes. The distinct diffusion mechanism for an active particle is clarified by the interplay between polymer stiffness, crowdedness and activity. Polymer stiffness leads to a global inhibition effect on passive particle diffusion. The diffusion coefficient exhibits an intriguing non-monotonic variation at increasing polymer stiffness, which is due to the fact that the alignment of polymer chains is beneficial for diffusion along the nematic direction but unfavorable for that in the direction perpendicular to it. In sharp contrast, polymer stiffness plays a dominant role in facilitating active particle diffusion. Self-propulsion of the particle can utilize stiffness-induced elastic interactions more efficiently, which promotes its mobility in both directions. Meanwhile, an active particle might have a stronger ability to take advantage of the polymer alignment, contributing substantially enhanced diffusivity. In addition, the diffusion coefficient of an active particle is subject to a tendency of degeneration against varying volume fraction. This counter-intuitive behavior is due to the contrasting factors that increasing crowdedness induces a lower particle speed but a longer persistent motion time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Chen
- College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China.
| | - Ran Yan
- College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China.
| | - Nanrong Zhao
- College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China.
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13
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Sahoo R, Theeyancheri L, Chakrabarti R. Transport of a self-propelled tracer through a hairy cylindrical channel: interplay of stickiness and activity. SOFT MATTER 2022; 18:1310-1318. [PMID: 35060583 DOI: 10.1039/d1sm01693h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Active transport of biomolecules assisted by motor proteins is imperative for the proper functioning of cellular activities. Inspired by the diffusion of active agents in crowded cellular channels, we computationally investigate the transport of an active tracer through a polymer grafted cylindrical channel by varying the activity of the tracer and stickiness of the tracer to the polymers. Our results reveal that the passive tracer exhibits profound subdiffusion with increasing stickiness by exploring deep into the grafted polymeric zone, while purely repulsive one prefers to diffuse through the pore-like space created along the cylindrical axis of the channel. In contrast, the active tracer shows faster dynamics and intermediate superdiffusion even though the tracer preferentially stays close to the dense polymeric region. This observation is further supported by the sharp peaks in the density profile of the probability of radial displacement of the tracer. We discover that the activity plays an important role in deciding the pathway that the tracer takes through the narrow channel. Interestingly, increasing the activity washes out the effect of stickiness. Adding to this, van-Hove functions manifest that the active tracer dynamics deviates from Gaussianity, and the degree of deviation grows with the activity. Our work has direct implications on how effective transportation and delivery of cargo can be achieved through a confined medium where activity, interactions, and crowding are interplaying. Looking ahead, these factors will be crucial for understanding the mechanism of artificial self-powered machines navigating through the cellular channels and performing in vivo challenging tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rajiblochan Sahoo
- Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India.
| | - Ligesh Theeyancheri
- Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India.
| | - Rajarshi Chakrabarti
- Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India.
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14
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Lu RX, Huang JH, Luo MB. A simulation study on the subdiffusion of polymer chains in crowded environments containing nanoparticles. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:3078-3085. [PMID: 35040462 DOI: 10.1039/d1cp03926a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Polymer chains in crowded environments often show subdiffusive behavior. We adopt molecular dynamics simulations to study the conditions for the subdiffusion of polymer chains in crowded environments containing randomly distributed, immobile, attractive nanoparticles (NPs). The attraction is strong enough to adsorb polymer chains on NPs. The results show that subdiffusion occurs at a low concentration of polymer chains (cp). A transition from subdiffusion to normal diffusion is observed when cp exceeds the transition concentration , which increases with increasing concentration of NPs while decreases with increasing size of NPs. The high concentration and small size of NPs exert a big effect on the subdiffusion of polymer chains. The subdiffusive behavior of polymer chains can be attributed to the strong adsorption of polymer chains on the attractive NPs. For the subdiffusion case, polymer chains are adsorbed strongly on multiple NPs, and they diffuse via the NP-exchange diffusion mechanism. However for the normal diffusion case, polymer chains are either free or weakly adsorbed on one or a few NPs, and they diffuse mainly via the adsorption-and-desorption diffusion mechanism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rong-Xing Lu
- Department of Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Surface & Interface Science of Polymer Materials of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
| | - Jian-Hua Huang
- Department of Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Surface & Interface Science of Polymer Materials of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
| | - Meng-Bo Luo
- Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
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15
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Peddireddy KR, Michieletto D, Aguirre G, Garamella J, Khanal P, Robertson-Anderson RM. DNA Conformation Dictates Strength and Flocculation in DNA-Microtubule Composites. ACS Macro Lett 2021; 10:1540-1548. [PMID: 35549144 PMCID: PMC9239750 DOI: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.1c00638] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Polymer topology has been shown to play a key role in tuning the dynamics of complex fluids and gels. At the same time, polymer composites, ubiquitous in everyday life, have been shown to exhibit emergent desirable mechanical properties not attainable in single-species systems. Yet, how topology impacts the dynamics and structure of polymer composites remains poorly understood. Here, we create composites of rigid rods (microtubules) polymerized within entangled solutions of flexible linear and ring polymers (DNA) of equal length. We couple optical tweezers microrheology with confocal microscopy and scaled particle theory to show that composites with linear DNA exhibit a strongly nonmonotonic dependence of elasticity and stiffness on microtubule concentration due to depletion-driven polymerization and flocculation of microtubules. In contrast, composites containing ring DNA show a much more modest monotonic increase in elastic strength with microtubule concentration, which we demonstrate arises from the decreased conformational size and increased miscibility of rings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karthik R Peddireddy
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, California 92110, United States
| | - Davide Michieletto
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Peter Guthrie Tait Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3FD, United Kingdom
- MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH4 2XU, United Kingdom
| | - Gina Aguirre
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, California 92110, United States
| | - Jonathan Garamella
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, California 92110, United States
| | - Pawan Khanal
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, California 92110, United States
| | - Rae M Robertson-Anderson
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, California 92110, United States
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Fedotov S, Han D, Zubarev AY, Johnston M, Allan VJ. Variable-order fractional master equation and clustering of particles: non-uniform lysosome distribution. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. SERIES A, MATHEMATICAL, PHYSICAL, AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES 2021; 379:20200317. [PMID: 34275365 DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2020.0317] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/21/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
In this paper, we formulate the space-dependent variable-order fractional master equation to model clustering of particles, organelles, inside living cells. We find its solution in the long-time limit describing non-uniform distribution due to a space-dependent fractional exponent. In the continuous space limit, the solution of this fractional master equation is found to be exactly the same as the space-dependent variable-order fractional diffusion equation. In addition, we show that the clustering of lysosomes, an essential organelle for healthy functioning of mammalian cells, exhibit space-dependent fractional exponents. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the non-uniform distribution of lysosomes in living cells is accurately described by the asymptotic solution of the space-dependent variable-order fractional master equation. Finally, Monte Carlo simulations of the fractional master equation validate our analytical solution. This article is part of the theme issue 'Transport phenomena in complex systems (part 1)'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sergei Fedotov
- Department of Mathematics, University of Manchester, M13 9PL, Manchester, UK
| | - Daniel Han
- Department of Mathematics, University of Manchester, M13 9PL, Manchester, UK
- Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, M13 9PL, Manchester, UK
| | | | - Mark Johnston
- Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, M13 9PL, Manchester, UK
| | - Victoria J Allan
- Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, M13 9PL, Manchester, UK
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Smrek J, Garamella J, Robertson-Anderson R, Michieletto D. Topological tuning of DNA mobility in entangled solutions of supercoiled plasmids. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2021; 7:eabf9260. [PMID: 33980492 PMCID: PMC8115916 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abf9260] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2020] [Accepted: 03/26/2021] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
Ring polymers in dense solutions are among the most intriguing problems in polymer physics. Because of its natural occurrence in circular form, DNA has been extensively used as a proxy to study the fundamental physics of ring polymers in different topological states. Yet, torsionally constrained-such as supercoiled-topologies have been largely neglected so far. The applicability of existing theoretical models to dense supercoiled DNA is thus unknown. Here, we address this gap by coupling large-scale molecular dynamics simulations with differential dynamic microscopy of entangled supercoiled DNA plasmids. We find that, unexpectedly, larger supercoiling increases the size of entangled plasmids and concomitantly induces an enhancement in DNA mobility. These findings are reconciled as due to supercoiling-driven asymmetric and double-folded plasmid conformations that reduce interplasmid entanglements and threadings. Our results suggest a way to topologically tune DNA mobility via supercoiling, thus enabling topological control over the (micro)rheology of DNA-based complex fluids.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jan Smrek
- Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Jonathan Garamella
- Department of Physics and Biophysics, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA 92110, USA
| | | | - Davide Michieletto
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh Peter Guthrie Tait Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, UK.
- MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH4 2XU, UK
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Anderson SJ, Garamella J, Adalbert S, McGorty RJ, Robertson-Anderson RM. Subtle changes in crosslinking drive diverse anomalous transport characteristics in actin-microtubule networks. SOFT MATTER 2021; 17:4375-4385. [PMID: 33908593 PMCID: PMC8189643 DOI: 10.1039/d1sm00093d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Anomalous diffusion in crowded and complex environments is widely studied due to its importance in intracellular transport, fluid rheology and materials engineering. Specifically, diffusion through the cytoskeleton, a network comprised of semiflexible actin filaments and rigid microtubules that interact both sterically and via crosslinking, plays a principal role in viral infection, vesicle transport and targeted drug delivery. Here, we elucidate the impact of crosslinking on particle diffusion in composites of actin and microtubules with actin-actin, microtubule-microtubule and actin-microtubule crosslinking. We analyze a suite of transport metrics by coupling single-particle tracking and differential dynamic microscopy. Using these complementary techniques, we find that particles display non-Gaussian and non-ergodic subdiffusion that is markedly enhanced by cytoskeletal crosslinking, which we attribute to suppressed microtubule mobility. However, the extent to which transport deviates from normal Brownian diffusion depends strongly on the crosslinking motif - with actin-microtubule crosslinking inducing the most pronounced anomalous characteristics. Our results reveal that subtle changes to actin-microtubule interactions can have complex impacts on particle diffusion in cytoskeleton composites, and suggest that a combination of reduced filament mobility and more variance in actin mobilities leads to more strongly anomalous particle transport.
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Affiliation(s)
- S J Anderson
- Department of Physics & Biophysics, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA 92110, USA.
| | - J Garamella
- Department of Physics & Biophysics, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA 92110, USA.
| | - S Adalbert
- Department of Physics & Biophysics, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA 92110, USA.
| | - R J McGorty
- Department of Physics & Biophysics, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA 92110, USA.
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