Stochastic single-molecule dynamics of synaptic membrane protein domains

• Published in: Europhysics letters Vol. 115; no. 6; pp. 68006 - 68012
• Main Authors: Kahraman, Osman, Li, Yiwei, Haselwandter, Christoph A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Les Ulis EDP Sciences, IOP Publishing and Società Italiana di Fisica 01-09-2016; IOP Publishing
• Subjects: 87.10.Mn; 87.16.-b; 87.19.lp; Cell membranes; Proteins
• ISSN: 0295-5075; 1286-4854
• DOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/115/68006

Motivated by single-molecule experiments on synaptic membrane protein domains, we use a stochastic lattice model to study protein reaction and diffusion processes in crowded membranes. We find that the stochastic reaction-diffusion dynamics of synaptic proteins provide a simple physical mechanism for collective fluctuations in synaptic domains, the molecular turnover observed at synaptic domains, key features of the single-molecule trajectories observed for synaptic proteins, and spatially inhomogeneous protein lifetimes at the cell membrane. Our results suggest that central aspects of the single-molecule and collective dynamics observed for membrane protein domains can be understood in terms of stochastic reaction-diffusion processes at the cell membrane.