Polymer translocation: the first two decades and the recent diversification

Abstract

Probably no other field of statistical physics at the borderline of soft matter and biological physics has caused such a flurry of papers as polymer translocation since the 1994 landmark paper by Bezrukov, Vodyanoy, and Parsegian and the study of Kasianowicz in 1996. Experiments, simulations, and theoretical approaches are still contributing novel insights to date, while no universal consensus on the statistical understanding of polymer translocation has been reached. We here collect the published results, in particular, the famous-infamous debate on the scaling exponents governing the translocation process. We put these results into perspective and discuss where the field is going. In particular, we argue that the phenomenon of polymer translocation is non-universal and highly sensitive to the exact specifications of the models and experiments used towards its analysis.

Controlling polymer capture and translocation by electrostatic polymer-pore interactions

“…Thus, polymer translocation should be formulated within the framework of a beyond-equilibrium electrohydrodynamic theory which has not been accomplished to date. Most models of polymer translocation dynamics to date are based on either coarse-grained computer simulations and theories that do not explicitly take into account electrostatic effects, or short time scale Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations of atomistic polymer-pore models [21]. However, there are also theoretical attempts to consider some specific aspects of electrostatics to translocation dynamics at the continuum level.…”

“…Recent advancements in nanotechnology have significantly improved the reliability of the sequencing techniques. More precisely, the use of solidstate nanopores of various size and charge compositions now offers a wide range of functionalities that can allow to improve the resolution of the method [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. The technological progress requires development of theoretical models that can relate the tunable system parameters to experimentally observable quantities such as polymer capture rates, translocation times, and the ionic current blockade.…”

Transition state theory approach to polymer escape from a one dimensional potential well

“…The free energy barrier separating the states is most often of entropic origin due to geometric confinement. Relevant examples include polymer translocation [1,2], where a polymer is crossing a membrane through a pore [3], or narrow µm-scale channels with traps [4]. Recent experiments by Liu et al involve the escape of DNA molecules from an entropic cage [5].…”

Suspended particle transport through constriction channel with Brownian motion

“…It is now well known that the translocation phenomena of polymer molecules through nanopores with a diameter comparable to the monomer size have stochastic nature [5,6]. The smooth entry of the polymers through the nanopores are hindered due to the entropic effect.…”

“…There are many situations where small objects subject to Brownian motion in a fluid are introduced to the constriction of microscopic channels, for example, filtration of colloidal particles through porous media [1][2][3], translocation of DNA molecules through nanopore sequencers [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17], and lab-on-achip (LOC) devices where analytes are introduced to various domains of nano-and microchannels for analysis [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. It is now well known that the translocation phenomena of polymer molecules through nanopores with a diameter comparable to the monomer size have stochastic nature [5,6].…”