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. 2016 Sep 29;4:106. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2016.00106

Table 1.

Examples of diffusion coefficients and their translation to the times needed to traverse a distance of 20 μm (e.g., HeLa cell).

Molecule and environment Diffusion coefficient (μm2/s) Time to traverse 20 μm (Brownian diffusion; seconds)# Reference(s)*
Small molecule (fluorescein) in water 430 0.2 Culbertson et al., 2002
Protein (GFP) in water 90 >1 Swaminathan et al., 1997
Small molecule (fluorescein) in cytoplasm 30 >3 Luby-Phelps et al., 1986
Protein (GFP) in cytoplasm (CHO cell) 30 >3 Swaminathan et al., 1997
Protein (GFP) in cytoplasm (bacterium) 8 12.5 Elowitz et al., 1999
Lipid tracer in fluid model membranes (DOPC; free-standing membrane) 5–15 1.6–20 Ramadurai et al., 2009
Lipid tracer in membrane blebs (cell membrane without cortical actin) 1–10 10–100 Tank et al., 1982
Lipid-anchored protein@ in fluid model membrane 5 20 Kahya et al., 2005
Integral membrane protein in fluid model membrane 2–5 20–50 Ramadurai et al., 2009
Lipid tracer in cell membrane 0.5–4 25–200 Tank et al., 1982
Lipid-anchored protein@ in cell membrane 0.1–1 100–1000 Zhang et al., 1991
Lipid-anchored protein@ in cell membrane blebs (without CA skeleton) 0.3–0.6 170–330 Zhang et al., 1991
Integral membrane protein in cell membrane blebs (CA skeleton-free) 0.01–0.5 200–10000 Tank et al., 1982
Integral membrane protein in cell membrane$ 0.001–0.1 1000–100000 Tank et al., 1982
#

The time to traverse the distance x was calculated as τ ≈ x2/4D, where D denotes the diffusion coefficient.

$

Some membrane proteins can exhibit only small mobile fraction or have even slower D.

@

GPI-anchored proteins were tested in cited works.

*

Original articles listed only.