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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Diffusion enhancement in bacterial cytoplasm through an active random force

Lingyu Meng1, Yiteng Jin2, Yichao Guan3, Jiayi Xu4, and Jie Lin1,2,*

  • 1Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • 2Center for Quantitative Biology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • 3The Graduate Program in Biophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
  • 4Yuanpei College, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

  • *Corresponding author: linjie@pku.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. Research 5, L032018 – Published 7 August, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.L032018

Abstract

Experiments have found that diffusion in metabolically active cells is much faster than in dormant cells, especially for large particles. However, the mechanism of this size-dependent diffusion enhancement in living cells is still unclear. In this Letter, we approximate the net effect of metabolic processes as a white-noise active force and simulate a model system of bacterial cytoplasm with a highly polydisperse particle size distribution. We find that diffusion enhancement in active cells relative to dormant cells can be more substantial for large particles. Our simulations agree quantitatively with the experimental data of Escherichia coli, suggesting an autocorrelation function of the active force proportional to the cube of the particle radius. We demonstrate that such a white-noise active force is equivalent to an active force of about 0.57 pN with random orientation. Our work unveils an emergent simplicity of random processes inside living cells.

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Phys. Rev. Research 5, L032018– Published 7 August, 2023
  • Received 5 September 2022
  • Accepted 10 July 2023
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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