Electrostatics of polymer translocation through membrane nanopores in electrolyte solutions

buir.advisorBüyükdağlı, Şahin
dc.contributor.authorMohamed, Ghada Mahmoud Abdullah
dc.date.accessioned2021-03-01T11:00:52Z
dc.date.available2021-03-01T11:00:52Z
dc.date.copyright2021-02
dc.date.issued2021-02
dc.date.submitted2021-02-25
dc.descriptionCataloged from PDF version of article.en_US
dc.descriptionThesis (M.S.): Bilkent University, Department of Physics, İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, 2021.en_US
dc.descriptionIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 46-48).en_US
dc.description.abstractThe transport of polymers across membranes in electrolyte solutions happens in most biological systems and is necessary for cells to function. Moreover, the poly-mer translocation process has proven to be very important in experiments and applications as well, providing a rich source of information about the polymer’s size and composition [1], [2], making the polymer translocation procedure a po-tential sequencing method that is efficient, cheap, and quick [3], [4]. However, no consensus on the theoretical understanding of the translocation mechanism has been reached yet [3], leaving it a major challenge for theoretical modelling due to its steric, hydrodynamic, and electrostatic interactions [2], [5]. Here, we calculate the electrostatic energy cost of the translocating polymer in both the approach and translocation phases and investigate the dependence of the poly-mer’s grand potential on different model tunable parameters. In the case of neu-tral membranes, low permittivity carbon-based membranes repel the approaching polymer with energy magnitude between ∼ 11 kBT and ∼ 27 kBT , while high permittivity engineered membranes attract the approaching polymer with almost the same energy magnitude. This behavior can be attributed to polymer image-charge interactions, which become amplified with low permittivity membranes. In strong salt solutions, the membrane exhibits a repulsive barrier that turns to a metastable well in dilute solutions. In pure solvents, the metastable well becomes a deep, stable well that traps the polymer in the pore for some time, where the translocation phase is mainly governed by the attractive trans-cis side interac-tion. For weakly charged membranes, the membrane charge attraction wins over the image-charge repulsion, leading to an attractive minimum at zt ≈ −1 nm followed by a repulsive barrier at lt = L/2 while for stronger membrane charges, the attractive well turns to a metastable point followed by an attractive, stable well. These results suggest that, in translocation experiments, DNA motion can be controlled by tuning the system parameters, such as the solution concentration or the membrane charge.en_US
dc.description.provenanceSubmitted by Betül Özen (ozen@bilkent.edu.tr) on 2021-03-01T11:00:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 thesis.pdf: 837253 bytes, checksum: 9075681e0cc313380a76ae632fd19d2d (MD5)en
dc.description.provenanceMade available in DSpace on 2021-03-01T11:00:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 thesis.pdf: 837253 bytes, checksum: 9075681e0cc313380a76ae632fd19d2d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2021-02en
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityby Ghada Mahmoud Abdullah Mohameden_US
dc.format.extentxii, 56 leaves : charts (color) ; 30 cm.en_US
dc.identifier.itemidB151646
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11693/75661
dc.language.isoEnglishen_US
dc.rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessen_US
dc.subjectChemical physicsen_US
dc.subjectSoft-matteren_US
dc.subjectBiophysicsen_US
dc.subjectPolymer physicsen_US
dc.subjectPolymer translocationen_US
dc.subjectDNA sequencingen_US
dc.subjectGene therapyen_US
dc.titleElectrostatics of polymer translocation through membrane nanopores in electrolyte solutionsen_US
dc.title.alternativeElektrolit içeren nanoporlardan polimer translokasyonunun elektrostatiğien_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
thesis.degree.disciplinePhysics
thesis.degree.grantorBilkent University
thesis.degree.levelMaster's
thesis.degree.nameMS (Master of Science)

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