Experimental detection of long-distance interactions between biomolecules through their diffusion behavior: numerical study

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2014 Aug;90(2):022703. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.90.022703. Epub 2014 Aug 6.

Abstract

The dynamical properties and diffusive behavior of a collection of mutually interacting particles are numerically investigated for two types of long-range interparticle interactions: Coulomb-electrostatic and dipole-electrodynamic. It is shown that when the particles are uniformly distributed throughout the accessible space, the self-diffusion coefficient is always lowered by the considered interparticle interactions, irrespective of their attractive or repulsive character. This fact is also confirmed by a simple model to compute the correction to the Brownian diffusion coefficient due to the interactions among the particles. These interactions are also responsible for the onset of dynamical chaos and an associated chaotic diffusion which still follows an Einstein-Fick-like law for the mean-square displacement as a function of time. Transitional phenomena are observed for Coulomb-electrostatic (repulsive) and dipole-electrodynamic (attractive) interactions considered both separately and in competition. The outcomes reported in this paper clearly indicate a feasible experimental method to probe the activation of resonant electrodynamic interactions among biomolecules.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Computer Simulation*
  • Diffusion
  • Models, Biological*
  • Models, Molecular*
  • Static Electricity