Weak Shape Anisotropy Leads to a Nonmonotonic Contribution to Crowding, Impacting Protein Dynamics under Physiologically Relevant Conditions.

ABSTRACT: The effect of a nonspherical particle shape on the dynamics in crowded solutions presents a significant challenge for a comprehensive understanding of interaction and structural relaxation in biological and soft matter. We report that small deviations from a spherical shape induce a nonmonotonic contribution to the crowding effect on the short-time cage diffusion compared with spherical systems, using molecular dynamics simulations with mesoscale hydrodynamics of a multiparticle collision dynamics fluid in semidilute systems with volume fractions smaller than 0.35. We show that the nonmonotonic effect due to anisotropy is caused by the combination of a reduced relative mobility over the entire concentration range and a looser and less homogeneous cage packing of nonspherical particles. Our

SUBMITTER: Myung JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6349356 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature