Trains, tails and loops of partially adsorbed semi-flexible filaments

Welch, David; Lettinga, M. P.; Ripoll, Marisol; Dogic, Zvonimir; Vliegenthart, G. A.

doi:10.1039/c5sm01457c

Cited by 28 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 50 publications

(102 reference statements)

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“…We find different exponents for loop and tail distributions of flexible and semiflexible polymers, which give rise to a different desorption behavior: semiflexible polymers have significantly smaller loops closed to the transition but both flexible and semiflexible polymers desorb by expanding the tail. This explains previous observations in simulations [5,27].…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Equating g c,rod (L) = g c,SF ∼ k B T /L d gives L d ∼ L as crossover point. For L d > L we thus expect adsorption of a very weakly fluctuating almost rigid rod, whereas for L > L d , there should be a crossover to the semiflexible result (5), for which collisions with the adsorption potential boundaries on the scale L d are important. This crossover proceeds via three regimes upon reducing the stiffness and, thus, the deflection length L d ∼ L 1/3 p 2/3 and the persistence length L p (L d < L p because L p ) or increasing the length L:…”

Section: B Crossover To the Semiflexible Regimementioning

confidence: 94%

“…For polymers with L L p as for F-actin as investigated in Ref. 5 or also for microtubules we rather expect to see semiflexible behavior of adsorption loops.…”

Section: In Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…This type of confinement has been considered in Ref. 5. For a completely rigid rod we calculate the ratio of the phase space volumes Z r,0 , where H ad = 0, and Z r,g , where the adsorption potential acts, and then apply eq.…”

Section: Semiflexible Polymer Confined By Two Hard Wallsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this paper we want to go beyond the analysis given in Ref. 5 and systematically derive a procedure to analyze finite size effects for semiflexible polymer adsorption.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adsorption of finite semiflexible polymers and their loop and tail distributions

Kampmann

Kierfeld

2017

The Journal of Chemical Physics

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We discuss the adsorption of semiflexible polymers to a planar attractive wall and focus on the questions of the adsorption threshold for polymers of finite length and their loop and tail distributions using both Monte Carlo simulations and analytical arguments. For the adsorption threshold, we find three regimes: (i) a flexible or Gaussian regime if the persistence length is smaller than the adsorption potential range, (ii) a semiflexible regime if the persistence length is larger than the potential range, and (iii) for finite polymers, a novel crossover to a rigid rod regime if the deflection length exceeds the contour length. In the flexible and semiflexible regimes, finite size corrections arise because the correlation length exceeds the contour length. In the rigid rod regime, however, it is essential how the global orientational or translational degrees of freedom are restricted by grafting or confinement. We discuss finite size corrections for polymers grafted to the adsorbing surface and for polymers confined by a second (parallel) hard wall. Based on these results, we obtain a method to analyze adsorption data for finite semiflexible polymers such as filamentous actin. For the loop and tail distributions, we find power laws with an exponential decay on length scales exceeding the correlation length. We derive and confirm the loop and tail power law exponents for flexible and semiflexible polymers. This allows us to explain that, close to the transition, semiflexible polymers have significantly smaller loops and both flexible and semiflexible polymers desorb by expanding their tail length. The tail distribution allows us to extract the free energy per length of adsorption for actin filaments from experimental data [D. Welch et al., Soft Matter 11, 7507 (2015)].

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: B Crossover To the Semiflexible Regimementioning

confidence: 94%

“…For polymers with L L p as for F-actin as investigated in Ref. 5 or also for microtubules we rather expect to see semiflexible behavior of adsorption loops.…”

Section: In Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Semiflexible Polymer Confined By Two Hard Wallsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this paper we want to go beyond the analysis given in Ref. 5 and systematically derive a procedure to analyze finite size effects for semiflexible polymer adsorption.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations