Some aspects of a two-pore translocation problem

Abstract

We report Brownian dynamics (BD) simulation results for a coarse-grained (CG) model semi-flexible polymer threading through two nanopores. Particularly we study a “tug-of-war” situation where equal and opposite forces are applied on each pore to avoid folds for the polymer segment in between the pores. We calculate mean first passage times (MFPT) through the left and the right pores and show how the MFPT decays as a function of the off-set voltage between the pores. We present results for several bias voltages and chain stiffness. Our BD simulation results validate recent experimental results and offer avenues to further explore various aspects of multi-pore translocation problem using BD simulation strategies which we believe will provide insights to design new experiments.