Department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Department of Biophysics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2020;1267:15-43. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-46886-6_2.
Diffusion within bacteria is often thought of as a "simple" random process by which molecules collide and interact with each other. New research however shows that this is far from the truth. Here we shed light on the complexity and importance of diffusion in bacteria, illustrating the similarities and differences of diffusive behaviors of molecules within different compartments of bacterial cells. We first describe common methodologies used to probe diffusion and the associated models and analyses. We then discuss distinct diffusive behaviors of molecules within different bacterial cellular compartments, highlighting the influence of metabolism, size, crowding, charge, binding, and more. We also explicitly discuss where further research and a united understanding of what dictates diffusive behaviors across the different compartments of the cell are required, pointing out new research avenues to pursue.
在细菌中，扩散通常被认为是一种“简单”的随机过程，其中分子相互碰撞和相互作用。然而，新的研究表明事实远非如此。在这里，我们揭示了扩散在细菌中的复杂性和重要性，说明了细菌细胞不同隔室中分子扩散行为的异同。我们首先描述了用于探测扩散的常用方法以及相关的模型和分析。然后，我们讨论了分子在不同细菌细胞隔室中的不同扩散行为，强调了代谢、大小、拥挤、电荷、结合等因素的影响。我们还明确讨论了需要进一步研究和统一理解哪些因素决定了细胞不同隔室中的扩散行为的地方，指出了新的研究途径。
