https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2018-800088-6
Review
Life in crowded conditions
Molecular crowding and beyond
Institute for Nonlinear Dynamics, University of Göttingen,
Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1,
37077 Göttingen, Germany
a e-mail: stefan.klumpp@phys.uni-goettingen.de
Received:
4
May
2018
Received in final form:
26
June
2018
Published online: 28 January 2019
Molecular crowding is ubiquitous in cells, which are rather densely packed with macromolecules. The effects of such crowded conditions on biophysical processes can be complex and puzzling. Here, we review these effects in a step-by-step manner. We start with excluded volume effects on elementary physical processes: diffusion, binding, reactions, and polymer compaction. We then discuss the binding of a transcription factor to a binding site on DNA as an example of a more complex process and consider effects of attractive interactions and active processes. We also give an outlook to larger-scale crowded systems such as suspensions of cells, biofilms, and tissues, which can be described using similar approaches as molecular crowded systems.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature, 2019
