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Updated: Apr 11, 2026

Single-Molecule Diffusion and Assembly on Polymer-Crowded Lipid Membranes
Published on: July 19, 2022
The effect of composition on diffusion of macromolecules in a crowded environment
Svyatoslav Kondrat1, Olav Zimmermann, Wolfgang Wiechert
1Forschungszentrum Jülich, IBG-1: Biotechnology, 52425 Jülich, Germany. JARA - High-Performance Computing, Germany.
Abstract:
We study diffusion of macromolecules in a crowded cytoplasm-like environment, focusing on its dependence on composition and its crossover to the anomalous subdiffusion. The crossover and the diffusion itself depend on both the volume fraction and the relative concentration of macromolecules. In accordance with previous theoretical and experimental studies, diffusion slows down when the volume fraction increases. Contrary to expectations, however, the diffusion is also strongly dependent on the molecular composition. The crossover time decreases and diffusion slows down when the smaller macromolecules start to dominate. Interestingly, diffusion is faster in a cytoplasm-like (more polydisperse) system than it is in a two-component system, at comparable packing fractions, or even when the cytoplasm packing fraction is larger.
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