Analytical description of anomalous diffusion in living cells

TL;DR

This paper introduces a stochastic model for intracellular transport that captures the transition from subdiffusive to superdiffusive behavior, aligning well with experimental observations of molecular motor-driven particle motion.

Contribution

It presents an analytical generalized Langevin equation model that describes anomalous diffusion in living cells, incorporating viscoelasticity and motor activity effects.

Findings

Derived an analytical mean square displacement expression showing diffusion transition.

Model reproduces key statistical properties of experimental intracellular transport data.

Demonstrates the model's ability to match observed anomalous diffusion behaviors.

Abstract

We propose a stochastic model for intracellular transport processes associated with the activity of molecular motors. This out-of-equilibrium model, based on a generalized Langevin equation, considers a particle immersed in a viscoelastic environment and simultaneously driven by an external random force that models the motors activity. An analytical expression for the mean square displacement is derived, which exhibits a subdiffusive to superdiffusive transition. We show that the experimentally accessible statistical properties of the diffusive particle motion can be reproduced by this model.