Molecular Chaperone-Dependent Polymer Translocation through Nanopores: The Effects of Chaperone Concentration and Chaperone-Polymer Interaction.

The polymer translocation through a nanopore from a donor space (or named cis side) to a receiver space (trans side) in the chaperone-induced crowded environment has attracted increasing attention in recent years due to its significance in biological systems and technological applications. In this work, we mainly focus on the effects of chaperone concentration and chaperone-polymer interaction on the polymer translocation. By assuming the polymer translocation to be a quasi-equilibrium process, the free energy F of the polymer can be estimated by Rosenbluth-Rosenbluth method and then the translocation time τ can be calculated by Fokker-Plank equation based on the obtained free energy landscape. Our calculation results show that the translocation time can be controlled by independently tuning the chaperone concentration and chaperone-polymer interaction at the cis side or the trans side. There exists a critical chaperone-polymer attraction ε*=−0.2 at which the volume exclusion and interaction effects of the chaperone can balance each other. Additionally, we also find that at large chaperone-polymer attraction, the translocation time is mainly governed by the diffusion coefficient of the polymer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]