Macromolecular crowding is more than hard-core repulsions

SL Speer, CJ Stewart, L Sapir… - Annual Review of …, 2022 - annualreviews.org
Cells are crowded, but proteins are almost always studied in dilute aqueous buffer. We
review the experimental evidence that crowding affects the equilibrium thermodynamics of …

Influence of nonspecific interactions on protein associations: implications for biochemistry in vivo

G Rivas, AP Minton - Annual Review of Biochemistry, 2022 - annualreviews.org
The cellular interior is composed of a variety of microenvironments defined by distinct local
compositions and composition-dependent intermolecular interactions. We review the …

Biomolecular interactions modulate macromolecular structure and dynamics in atomistic model of a bacterial cytoplasm

I Yu, T Mori, T Ando, R Harada, J Jung, Y Sugita… - Elife, 2016 - elifesciences.org
Biological macromolecules function in highly crowded cellular environments. The structure
and dynamics of proteins and nucleic acids are well characterized in vitro, but in vivo …

Dynamic cluster formation determines viscosity and diffusion in dense protein solutions

S von Bülow, M Siggel, M Linke… - Proceedings of the …, 2019 - National Acad Sciences
We develop a detailed description of protein translational and rotational diffusion in
concentrated solution on the basis of all-atom molecular dynamics simulations in explicit …

Depletion interactions modulate the binding between disordered proteins in crowded environments

F Zosel, A Soranno, KJ Buholzer… - Proceedings of the …, 2020 - National Acad Sciences
Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) abound in cellular regulation. Their interactions are
often transitory and highly sensitive to salt concentration and posttranslational modifications …

Single-molecule spectroscopy reveals polymer effects of disordered proteins in crowded environments

A Soranno, I Koenig, MB Borgia, H Hofmann, F Zosel… - Biophysical …, 2014 - cell.com
It is currently unclear how the crowded cellular milieu affects the structural distributions of
intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). Here we employ single-molecule Förster resonance …

Crowding in cellular environments at an atomistic level from computer simulations

M Feig, I Yu, P Wang, G Nawrocki… - The Journal of Physical …, 2017 - ACS Publications
The effects of crowding in biological environments on biomolecular structure, dynamics, and
function remain not well understood. Computer simulations of atomistic models of …

Resolving the enthalpy of protein stabilization by macromolecular crowding

CJ Stewart, GI Olgenblum, A Propst, D Harries… - Protein …, 2023 - Wiley Online Library
Proteins in the cellular milieu reside in environments crowded by macromolecules and other
solutes. Although crowding can significantly impact the protein folded state stability, most …

Excluded‐volume effects in living cells

D Gnutt, M Gao, O Brylski, M Heyden… - Angewandte Chemie …, 2015 - Wiley Online Library
Biomolecules evolve and function in densely crowded and highly heterogeneous cellular
environments. Such conditions are often mimicked in the test tube by the addition of artificial …

Is the depletion force entropic? Molecular crowding beyond steric interactions

L Sapir, D Harries - Current opinion in colloid & interface science, 2015 - Elsevier
Cosolutes excluded from macromolecules create effective attractions between the excluding
macromolecules, and promote their self-association. This “depletion force” serves an …