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Updated: May 9, 2026

Visualizing the Conformational Dynamics of Membrane Receptors Using Single-Molecule FRET
Published on: August 17, 2022
Ligand binding in a spherical region randomly crowded by receptors
1Centre de Biophysique Moleculaire CBM-CNRS UPR 4301 du CNRS, Rue Charles Sadron, F-45071 Orleans Cedex 2, France. sergtray@mail.ru
Abstract:
This paper reports on some results concerning the binding of diffusing ligands in a spherical 3D region randomly filled by free receptors. It is shown that commonly accepted mean-field theory which is successfully used for bulk diffusion-controlled reactions cannot describe the behavior of ligand concentration in the diffusion layer close to the region boundary. To eliminate this drawback of the theory, we introduce a new complementary diffusion equation in the boundary layer with an appropriate matching condition. Using this equation, we find the characteristic ligand penetration length and total time-dependent flux of ligand binding to free receptors randomly distributed in a spherical region.
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