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Determination of Plasma Membrane Partitioning for Peripherally-associated Proteins
Published on: June 15, 2018
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Numerical calculation on a two-step subdiffusion behavior of lateral protein movement in plasma membranes
Tomonari Sumi1, Atsushi Okumoto2, Hitoshi Goto2
1Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama 700-8530, Japan.
Physical Review. E
|January 20, 2018
Summary
Transmembrane protein movement in plasma membranes exhibits two-step subdiffusion. A fence and picket model explains this by incorporating reduced protein diffusivity near pickets, avoiding complex nested compartment models.
Area of Science:
- Biophysics
- Cell Biology
- Computational Biology
Background:
- Transmembrane proteins display complex lateral movement within plasma membranes.
- Single-molecule experiments reveal a two-step subdiffusion pattern in protein dynamics.
- Existing models propose nested double compartments to explain this behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the heterogeneous diffusion dynamics of transmembrane proteins.
- To provide a simplified model explaining the observed two-step subdiffusion.
- To explore the role of membrane-skeleton fences and protein pickets in protein mobility.
Main Methods:
- Numerical simulations of a master equation.
- Utilizing a two-dimensional lattice model.
- Investigating transmembrane protein diffusion dynamics.
Main Results:
- The study successfully describes the two-step subdiffusion behavior.
- A combined fence and picket model explains the observed dynamics.
- Reduced local diffusivity near pickets is identified as a key factor.
Conclusions:
- The fence and picket model offers a viable explanation for two-step subdiffusion.
- This model simplifies the understanding of transmembrane protein dynamics.
- Nested double compartments are not explicitly required to explain the phenomenon.
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