Conformations and diffusion of flexibly linked colloidal chains

Ruben W. Verweij; Pepijn G. Moerman; Loes P.P. Huijnen; Nathalie E.G. Ligthart; Indrani Chakraborty; Jan Groenewold; Willem K. Kegel; Alfons van Blaaderen; Daniela J. Kraft

doi:10.1088/2515-7639/abf571

Conformations and diffusion of flexibly linked colloidal chains

Ruben W. Verweij, Pepijn G. Moerman, Loes P.P. Huijnen, Nathalie E.G. Ligthart, Indrani Chakraborty, Jan Groenewold, Willem K. Kegel, Alfons van Blaaderen, Daniela J. Kraft^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

For biologically relevant macromolecules such as intrinsically disordered proteins, internal degrees of freedom that allow for shape changes have a large influence on both the motion and function of the compound. A detailed understanding of the effect of flexibility is needed in order to explain their behavior. Here, we study a model system of freely-jointed chains of three to six colloidal spheres, using both simulations and experiments. We find that in spite of their short lengths, their conformational statistics are well described by two-dimensional Flory theory, while their average translational and rotational diffusivity follow the Kirkwood–Riseman scaling. Their maximum flexibility does not depend on the length of the chain, but is determined by the near-wall in-plane translational diffusion coefficient of an individual sphere. Furthermore, we uncover shape-dependent effects in the short-time diffusivity of colloidal tetramer chains, as well as non-zero couplings between the different diffusive modes. Our findings may have implications for understanding both the diffusive behavior and the most likely conformations of macromolecular systems in biology and industry, such as proteins, polymers, single-stranded DNA and other chain-like molecules.

Original language	English
Article number	035002
Pages (from-to)	1-19
Number of pages	19
Journal	JPhys Materials
Volume	4
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7639/abf571
Publication status	Published - 4 May 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Ali Azadbakht for the design and setup of the Optical Tweezers and his technical support. We are grateful to Aleksandar Donev and Brennan Sprinkle for fruitful discussions and for providing us with example code for the simulations. We thank Piotr Szymczak for useful discussions about the center of diffusion. The simulations were partly performed using the ALICE compute resources provided by Leiden University. J G wishes to thank the program for Chang Jiang Scholars and Innovative Research Teams in Universities (No. IRT 17R40) and the 111 Project of the PRC. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement No. 758383) and from the NWO graduate program.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.

Funding

We thank Ali Azadbakht for the design and setup of the Optical Tweezers and his technical support. We are grateful to Aleksandar Donev and Brennan Sprinkle for fruitful discussions and for providing us with example code for the simulations. We thank Piotr Szymczak for useful discussions about the center of diffusion. The simulations were partly performed using the ALICE compute resources provided by Leiden University. J G wishes to thank the program for Chang Jiang Scholars and Innovative Research Teams in Universities (No. IRT 17R40) and the 111 Project of the PRC. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement No. 758383) and from the NWO graduate program.

Keywords

Brownian motion
Colloids
Diffusion
Flexible bead chains

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Verweij_2021_J._Phys._Mater._4_035002Final published version, 1.68 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Conformations and diffusion of flexibly linked colloidal chains",

abstract = "For biologically relevant macromolecules such as intrinsically disordered proteins, internal degrees of freedom that allow for shape changes have a large influence on both the motion and function of the compound. A detailed understanding of the effect of flexibility is needed in order to explain their behavior. Here, we study a model system of freely-jointed chains of three to six colloidal spheres, using both simulations and experiments. We find that in spite of their short lengths, their conformational statistics are well described by two-dimensional Flory theory, while their average translational and rotational diffusivity follow the Kirkwood–Riseman scaling. Their maximum flexibility does not depend on the length of the chain, but is determined by the near-wall in-plane translational diffusion coefficient of an individual sphere. Furthermore, we uncover shape-dependent effects in the short-time diffusivity of colloidal tetramer chains, as well as non-zero couplings between the different diffusive modes. Our findings may have implications for understanding both the diffusive behavior and the most likely conformations of macromolecular systems in biology and industry, such as proteins, polymers, single-stranded DNA and other chain-like molecules.",

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note = "Funding Information: We thank Ali Azadbakht for the design and setup of the Optical Tweezers and his technical support. We are grateful to Aleksandar Donev and Brennan Sprinkle for fruitful discussions and for providing us with example code for the simulations. We thank Piotr Szymczak for useful discussions about the center of diffusion. The simulations were partly performed using the ALICE compute resources provided by Leiden University. J G wishes to thank the program for Chang Jiang Scholars and Innovative Research Teams in Universities (No. IRT 17R40) and the 111 Project of the PRC. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement No. 758383) and from the NWO graduate program. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.",

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AU - Moerman, Pepijn G.

AU - Huijnen, Loes P.P.

AU - Ligthart, Nathalie E.G.

AU - Chakraborty, Indrani

AU - Groenewold, Jan

AU - Kegel, Willem K.

AU - van Blaaderen, Alfons

AU - Kraft, Daniela J.

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N2 - For biologically relevant macromolecules such as intrinsically disordered proteins, internal degrees of freedom that allow for shape changes have a large influence on both the motion and function of the compound. A detailed understanding of the effect of flexibility is needed in order to explain their behavior. Here, we study a model system of freely-jointed chains of three to six colloidal spheres, using both simulations and experiments. We find that in spite of their short lengths, their conformational statistics are well described by two-dimensional Flory theory, while their average translational and rotational diffusivity follow the Kirkwood–Riseman scaling. Their maximum flexibility does not depend on the length of the chain, but is determined by the near-wall in-plane translational diffusion coefficient of an individual sphere. Furthermore, we uncover shape-dependent effects in the short-time diffusivity of colloidal tetramer chains, as well as non-zero couplings between the different diffusive modes. Our findings may have implications for understanding both the diffusive behavior and the most likely conformations of macromolecular systems in biology and industry, such as proteins, polymers, single-stranded DNA and other chain-like molecules.

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KW - Diffusion

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ER -

Conformations and diffusion of flexibly linked colloidal chains

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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