Entropic forces generated by grafted semiflexible polymers
arXiv:cond-mat/0603101 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.74.041803
Abstract
The entropic force exerted by the Brownian fluctuations of a grafted semiflexible polymer upon a rigid smooth wall are calculated both analytically and by Monte Carlo simulations. Such forces are thought to play an important role for several cellular phenomena, in particular, the physics of actin-polymerization-driven cell motility and movement of bacteria like Listeria. In the stiff limit, where the persistence length of the polymer is larger than its contour length, we find that the entropic force shows scaling behavior. We identify the characteristic length scales and the explicit form of the scaling functions. In certain asymptotic regimes we give simple analytical expressions which describe the full results to a very high numerical accuracy. Depending on the constraints imposed on the transverse fluctuations of the filament there are characteristic differences in the functional form of the entropic forces; in a two-dimensional geometry the entropic force exhibits a marked peak.
21 pages, 18 figures, minor misprints corrected
References in corpus (5)
- Elastic properties of grafted microtubules
- Entropic torque
- Transverse fluctuations of grafted polymers
- Linear response of a grafted semiflexible polymer to a uniform force field
- Bimodality in the transverse fluctuations of a grafted semiflexible polymer and the diffusion-convection analogue: an effective-medium approach
Cited by in corpus (20)
- Elastic properties of grafted microtubules
- Microtubule dynamics depart from wormlike chain model
- New Proposed Mechanism of Actin-Polymerization-Driven Motility
- Velocity oscillations in actin-based motility
- Inequivalence of fixed-force and fixed-extension statistical ensembles for a flexible polymer tethered to a planar substrate
- Mechanical properties of branched actin filaments
- Bundling in brushes of directed and semiflexible polymers
- Elasticity of a semiflexible filament with a discontinuous tension due to a cross-link or a molecular motor
- The effect of internal and global modes on the radial distribution function of confined semiflexible polymers
- Compressive force generation by a bundle of living biofilaments
- Lattice Knots in a Slab
- A semi-flexible model prediction for the polymerization force exerted by a living F-actin filament on a fixed wall
- Filament flexibility enhances power transduction of F-actin bundles
- The entropic pressure of a lattice polygon
- On the pressure exerted by a bundle of independent living filaments
- Actin based propulsion: Intriguing interplay between material properties and growth processes
- On the Properties of a Bundle of Flexible Actin Filaments in an Optical Trap
- Entropic forces exerted on a rough wall by a grafted semiflexible polymer
- Depletion force between disordered linear macromolecules
- Forces and pressures in adsorbing partially directed walks