Separation of the spatial subdiffusion from the temporal subdiffusion

What is it about?

Until now, characterization of translational diffusion in live cells has relied almost exclusively on measurements of constant translational diffusion coefficients. In live cells there is some evidence that the apparent translational diffusion coefficients may not be constant, but instead can vary over time, even for inert molecules. Separation of the spatial subdiffusion from the temporal subdiffusion: Trapping of molecules in live cells can exert at least two types of effects that could be important for function. First, live cells will have a strong influence on how far and how fast locally produced molecules will travel within the cytoplasm or the nucleoplasm. Over a time scale of 1 s, a molecule with an apparent diffusion coefficient Dapp of 2 μm2/ms, would diffuse about 60 μm. Thus, as long as molecules remained within the cytoplasm, their movement could be dominated by an anomalous diffusion process over distances. Second, anomalous diffusion reflects an increase in the spatial and temporal correlation of diffusing molecules which would be expected to promote activation of biochemical networks by intracellular signals trapped in live cells

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Why is it important?

Separation of the spatial subdiffusion from the temporal subdiffusion. The thermodynamic Single-Molecule DEMON: How to avoid him in the measurements of dilute liquids and live cells without immobilization or flow: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/thermodynamic-single-molecule-demon-zeno-földes-papp/?trk=public_profile_article_view