In vivo anomalous diffusion and weak ergodicity breaking of lipid granules

Phys Rev Lett. 2011 Jan 28;106(4):048103. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.048103. Epub 2011 Jan 25.

Abstract

Combining extensive single particle tracking microscopy data of endogenous lipid granules in living fission yeast cells with analytical results we show evidence for anomalous diffusion and weak ergodicity breaking. Namely we demonstrate that at short times the granules perform subdiffusion according to the laws of continuous time random walk theory. The associated violation of ergodicity leads to a characteristic turnover between two scaling regimes of the time averaged mean squared displacement. At longer times the granule motion is consistent with fractional Brownian motion.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Diffusion*
  • Lipid Metabolism*
  • Movement*
  • Optical Tweezers
  • Schizosaccharomyces / cytology
  • Schizosaccharomyces / metabolism
  • Time Factors