Fig. 5.

Effect of crowding-induced FG nup rearrangements around the pore exits. (A) Sample snapshot of our simulation at low NTR concentration: peripheral FG nups partially extend into the cytoplasmic compartment. (B) Sample snapshot of our simulation at a high NTR concentration: FG nups are mostly contained within the pore. (C) Sample snapshot of simulations with all FG nups confined within the pore by virtual “barriers” (red), thereby preventing FG nup rearrangements around the pore openings. (D) Translocation probabilities and transport times for the NPC model in C where FG nups are prevented from extending out of the pore. Without FG nup rearrangement, the translocation probability monotonically decreases with increasing crowding. Error bars indicate SE. (E) Effective potentials measured in the simulation where FG nups are artificially prevented from extending out of the pore. (F) Zoomed-in effective potentials for representative NTR concentrations in the region from z = −L − R to z = −L + R (the bounds of the integral in the numerator of Eq. 3). In contrast to Fig. 3B, crowding monotonically decreases the slope of the potential in the region of the pore entrance.