A Simple and Powerful Analysis of Lateral Subdiffusion Using Single Particle Tracking.

ABSTRACT: In biological membranes, many factors such as cytoskeleton, lipid composition, crowding, and molecular interactions deviate lateral diffusion from the expected random walks. These factors have different effects on diffusion but act simultaneously, so the observed diffusion is a complex mixture of diffusive behaviors (directed, Brownian, anomalous, or confined). Therefore, commonly used approaches to quantify diffusion based on averaging of the displacements such as the mean square displacement, are not adapted to the analysis of this heterogeneity. We introduce a parameter-the packing coefficient Pc, which gives an estimate of the degree of free movement that a molecule displays in a period of time independently of its global diffusivity. Applying this approach to two different situations

SUBMITTER: Renner M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5738498 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature