Physical mechanism for biopolymers to aggregate and maintain in non-equilibrium states
Abstract Many human or animal diseases are related to aggregation of proteins. A viable biological organism should maintain in non-equilibrium states. How protein aggregate and why biological organisms can maintain in non-equilibrium states are not well understood. As a first step to understand such...
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2017-06-01
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03136-7 |
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doaj-0b0432e4ee6540cbb8238651d63ece962020-12-08T00:24:36ZengNature Publishing GroupScientific Reports2045-23222017-06-017111710.1038/s41598-017-03136-7Physical mechanism for biopolymers to aggregate and maintain in non-equilibrium statesWen-Jong Ma0Chin-Kun Hu1Graduate Institute of Applied Physics, National Chengchi UniversityInstitute of Physics, Academia SinicaAbstract Many human or animal diseases are related to aggregation of proteins. A viable biological organism should maintain in non-equilibrium states. How protein aggregate and why biological organisms can maintain in non-equilibrium states are not well understood. As a first step to understand such complex systems problems, we consider simple model systems containing polymer chains and solvent particles. The strength of the spring to connect two neighboring monomers in a polymer chain is controlled by a parameter s with s → ∞ for rigid-bond. The strengths of bending and torsion angle dependent interactions are controlled by a parameter s A with s A → −∞ corresponding to no bending and torsion angle dependent interactions. We find that for very small s A , polymer chains tend to aggregate spontaneously and the trend is independent of the strength of spring. For strong springs, the speed distribution of monomers in the parallel (along the direction of the spring to connect two neighboring monomers) and perpendicular directions have different effective temperatures and such systems are in non-equilibrium states.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03136-7 |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Wen-Jong Ma Chin-Kun Hu |
spellingShingle |
Wen-Jong Ma Chin-Kun Hu Physical mechanism for biopolymers to aggregate and maintain in non-equilibrium states Scientific Reports |
author_facet |
Wen-Jong Ma Chin-Kun Hu |
author_sort |
Wen-Jong Ma |
title |
Physical mechanism for biopolymers to aggregate and maintain in non-equilibrium states |
title_short |
Physical mechanism for biopolymers to aggregate and maintain in non-equilibrium states |
title_full |
Physical mechanism for biopolymers to aggregate and maintain in non-equilibrium states |
title_fullStr |
Physical mechanism for biopolymers to aggregate and maintain in non-equilibrium states |
title_full_unstemmed |
Physical mechanism for biopolymers to aggregate and maintain in non-equilibrium states |
title_sort |
physical mechanism for biopolymers to aggregate and maintain in non-equilibrium states |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
series |
Scientific Reports |
issn |
2045-2322 |
publishDate |
2017-06-01 |
description |
Abstract Many human or animal diseases are related to aggregation of proteins. A viable biological organism should maintain in non-equilibrium states. How protein aggregate and why biological organisms can maintain in non-equilibrium states are not well understood. As a first step to understand such complex systems problems, we consider simple model systems containing polymer chains and solvent particles. The strength of the spring to connect two neighboring monomers in a polymer chain is controlled by a parameter s with s → ∞ for rigid-bond. The strengths of bending and torsion angle dependent interactions are controlled by a parameter s A with s A → −∞ corresponding to no bending and torsion angle dependent interactions. We find that for very small s A , polymer chains tend to aggregate spontaneously and the trend is independent of the strength of spring. For strong springs, the speed distribution of monomers in the parallel (along the direction of the spring to connect two neighboring monomers) and perpendicular directions have different effective temperatures and such systems are in non-equilibrium states. |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03136-7 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT wenjongma physicalmechanismforbiopolymerstoaggregateandmaintaininnonequilibriumstates AT chinkunhu physicalmechanismforbiopolymerstoaggregateandmaintaininnonequilibriumstates |
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1724396295476477952 |