Translocation of stiff polymers through a nanopore driven by binding particles

We investigate the translocation of stiff polymers in the presence of binding particles through a nanopore by two-dimensional Langevin dynamics simulations. We find that the mean translocation time shows a minimum as a function of the binding energy $epsilon$ and the particle concentration $phi$, due to the interplay of the force from binding and the frictional force. Particularly, for the strong binding the translocation proceeds with a decreasing translocation velocity induced by a significant increase of the frictional force. In addition, both $epsilon$ and $phi$ have an notable impact on the distribution of the translocation time. With increasing $epsilon$ and $phi$, it undergoes a transition from an asymmetric and broad distribution under the weak binding to a nearly Gaussian one under the strong binding, and its width becomes gradually narrower.

Chaperone-assisted translocation of a polymer through a nanopore

Using Langevin dynamics simulations, we investigate the dynamics of chaperone-assisted translocation of a flexible polymer through a nanopore. We find that increasing the binding energy $epsilon$ between the chaperone and the chain and the chaperone concentration $N_c$ can greatly improve the translocation probability. Particularly, with increasing the chaperone concentration a maximum translocation probability is observed for weak binding. For a fixed chaperone concentration, the histogram of translocation time $tau$ has a transition from long-tailed distribution to Gaussian distribution with increasing $epsilon$. $tau$ rapidly decreases and then almost saturates with increasing binding energy for short chain, however, it has a minimum for longer chains at lower chaperone concentration. We also show that $tau$ has a minimum as a function of the chaperone concentration. For different $epsilon$, a nonuniversal dependence of $tau$ on the chain length $N$ is also observed. These results can be interpreted by characteristic entropic effects for flexible polymers induced by either crowding effect from high chaperone concentration or the intersegmental binding for the high binding energy.