# Glassy dynamics of a model of bacterial cytoplasm with metabolic activities

## TL;DR

This paper models bacterial cytoplasm dynamics, showing that metabolic activity-induced conformational changes in proteins can fluidize glassy states, aligning with experimental observations of active fluidization.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel model linking protein conformational changes to cytoplasm fluidization, providing insights into active fluidization mechanisms in bacteria.

## Key findings

- Small volume changes fluidize the glassy cytoplasm
- Conformational changes alter the fragility of the system
- Model reproduces experimental fluidization behavior

## Abstract

Recent experiments have revealed that cytoplasms become glassy when their metabolism is suppressed, while they maintain fluidity in a living state. The mechanism of this active fluidization is not clear, especially for bacterial cytoplasms, since they lack traditional motor proteins, which can cause directed motions. We introduce a model of bacterial cytoplasm focusing on the impact of conformational change in proteins due to metabolism. In the model, proteins are treated as particles under thermal agitation, and conformation changes are treated as changes in particle volume. Simulations revealed that a small change in volume fluidizes the glassy state, accompanied by a change in fragility, as observed experimentally.