Polymer translocation in an environment of active rods

Abstract

We consider the dynamics of a translocation process of a flexible linear polymer through a nanopore into an environment of active rods in the trans side. Using Langevin dynamics simulations, we show that the rods facilitate translocation to the trans side even when there are initially more monomers on the cis than on the trans side. Structural analysis of the translocating polymer reveals that active rods induce a folded structure to the trans-side subchain in the case of successful translocation events. By keeping the initial number of monomers on the cis-side subchain fixed, we map out a state diagram for successful events as a function of the rod number density for a variety of system parameters. This reveals competition between facilitation by the rods at low densities and crowding that hinders translocation at higher densities.