Thermodynamics of Macromolecular Association in Heterogeneous Crowding Environments: Theoretical and Simulation Studies with a Simplified Model.

ABSTRACT: The cytoplasm of a cell is crowded with many different kinds of macromolecules. The macromolecular crowding affects the thermodynamics and kinetics of biological reactions in a living cell, such as protein folding, association, and diffusion. Theoretical and simulation studies using simplified models focus on the essential features of the crowding effects and provide a basis for analyzing experimental data. In most of the previous studies on the crowding effects, a uniform crowder size is assumed, which is in contrast to the inhomogeneous size distribution of macromolecules in a living cell. Here, we evaluate the free energy changes upon macromolecular association in a cell-like inhomogeneous crowding system via a theory of hard-sphere fluids and free energy calculations using Brownian dyn

SUBMITTER: Ando T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8054318 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature