Polymer segregation under confinement: Influences of macromolecular crowding and the interaction between the polymer and crowders

摘要

Entropy driven polymer segregation in confinements as a model for chromosome separation in bacteria has attracted wide attention; however, the effects of macromolecular crowding and the interaction between the binding protein and the newly replicated DNA on the segregation dynamics are not clear. Using Langevin dynamics simulations, we investigate the influences of crowders and the attractive interaction between the polymer and a small number of crowders on segregation of two overlapping polymers under a cylindrical confinement. We find that the segregation time increases with increasing the volume fraction of crowders due to the slower chain diffusion in crowded environments. For a fixed volume fraction of crowders, the segregation time decreases with increasing the size of crowders. Moreover, the attractive interaction between the polymer and a small number of crowders can significantly facilitate the chain segregation. These results are important for understanding the chromosome segregation in living cells. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.