Polymer release out of a spherical vesicle through a pore

Abstract

Translocation of a polymer out of a curved surface or membrane is studied via the mean first passage time approach. Membrane curvature gives rise to a constraint on polymer conformation, which effectively drives the polymer to the outside of confinement, where the available volume of the polymer conformational fluctuation is larger. Considering a polymer release out of a spherical vesicle, the polymer translocation time tau is changed to the scaling behavior tau similar to L-2 for R<R-G, from tau similar to L-3 for R much greater than R-G, where L is the polymer contour length, and R and R-G are the vesicle radius and polymer radius of gyration, respectively. Also, the polymer capture into a spherical bud is studied, and a possible apparatus for easy capture is suggested.