Thermodynamics of polymer adsorption to a flexible membrane

Abstract

We analyze the structural behavior of a single polymer chain grafted to an attractive, flexible surface. Our model is composed of a coarse-grained bead-and-spring polymer and a tethered membrane. By means of extensive parallel tempering Monte Carlo simulations it is shown that the system exhibits a rich phase behavior ranging from highly ordered, compact to extended random coil structures, and from desorbed to completely adsorbed or even partially embedded conformations. These findings are summarized in a pseudophase diagram indicating the predominant class of conformations as a function of the external parameters temperature and polymer-membrane interaction strength. By comparison with adsorption to a stiff membrane surface it is shown that the flexibility of the membrane gives rise to qualitatively new behavior such as stretching of adsorbed conformations.

Retracted: MicroRNA‐92a promotes tumor growth and suppresses immune function through activation of MAPK/ERK signaling pathway by inhibiting PTEN in mice bearing U14 cervical cancer

“…Repression of MAPK signaling pathway has similar effects on the maintenance of PTEN, which revealed that the MAPK signaling pathway leads to the restoration of advanced breast cancers harboring PTEN loss [12]. Mitogenic-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling pathway has been found to play a role in some cancer therapies, as ERK1/2, one of MAPK/ERK kinases, was highly expressed in cervical cancer tissues [13], which also regulates many biological factors that affect types of miRNAs and their relevant machinery [14]. It has been indicated that some miRNAs, like miR-22, might have potential effects on cell biology via the regulation of PTEN expression [15].…”

Structural behavior of a polymer chain inside an attractive sphere

“…Representative conformations that predominate in the different structural pseudophases labeled by a letter code adopted from Refs. [22][23][24][25] are compiled in Fig. 4.…”

“…The problem considered in this paper could have practical implications for a broad variety of applications ranging from protein-ligand binding and designing smart sensors to molecular pattern recognition [9][10][11][12] and the discovery of new drugs that bind to specific receptors. Therefore, the theoretical treatment of the adsorption of macromolecules within the framework of minimalistic coarse-grained polymer models in statistical mechanics has been a long-standing problem [13,14] that still attracts a lot of interest [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25].…”

Polymer adsorption on a fractal substrate: Numerical study

“…A number of studies has been dedicated to polymer adsorption on a family of finitely ramified fractals [31][32][33][34]. Also of great importance is the study of polymers in the vicinity of fluctuating surfaces, such as membranes [35,36]. In this concern, it is worthwhile to study the situation when the concentration of attractive sites on the surface is exactly at the percolation threshold and a spanning percolation cluster of attractive sites appears.…”

“…A number of studies has been dedicated to polymer adsorption on a family of finitely ramified fractals [31][32][33][34]. Also of great importance is the study of polymers in the vicinity of fluctuating surfaces, such as membranes [35,36].…”