Figure 6.

The role of genomic crowders on the target search process of DBPs. (A) A schematic representation of the target search process of Sap-1 (in orange) in the presence of DBPs that are already bound to the DNA (presented through spheres) is shown. (B) The variation in the 1D diffusion coefficient (in black lines) of the protein normalized by the diffusion coefficient in the absence of crowder molecules (D₀) and the variation in the ruggedness of the potential energy landscape (in red lines) as a function of ε are shown. (C–E) Contour plots show the probability of protein positions on the x-z plane for nonspecific crowder interaction strengths ε = 0, ε = 0.06, and ε = 0.5, respectively. The brighter the spot, the higher the probability is of finding the protein at that position. To see this figure in color, go online.