Stochastic yield catastrophes and robustness in self-assembly
A guiding principle in self-assembly is that, for high production yield, nucleation of structures must be significantly slower than their growth. However, details of the mechanism that impedes nucleation are broadly considered irrelevant. Here, we analyze self-assembly into finite-sized target struc...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2020-02-01
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| Series: | eLife |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/51020 |
| _version_ | 1811181515544985600 |
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| author | Florian M Gartner Isabella R Graf Patrick Wilke Philipp M Geiger Erwin Frey |
| author_facet | Florian M Gartner Isabella R Graf Patrick Wilke Philipp M Geiger Erwin Frey |
| author_sort | Florian M Gartner |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A guiding principle in self-assembly is that, for high production yield, nucleation of structures must be significantly slower than their growth. However, details of the mechanism that impedes nucleation are broadly considered irrelevant. Here, we analyze self-assembly into finite-sized target structures employing mathematical modeling. We investigate two key scenarios to delay nucleation: (i) by introducing a slow activation step for the assembling constituents and, (ii) by decreasing the dimerization rate. These scenarios have widely different characteristics. While the dimerization scenario exhibits robust behavior, the activation scenario is highly sensitive to demographic fluctuations. These demographic fluctuations ultimately disfavor growth compared to nucleation and can suppress yield completely. The occurrence of this stochastic yield catastrophe does not depend on model details but is generic as soon as number fluctuations between constituents are taken into account. On a broader perspective, our results reveal that stochasticity is an important limiting factor for self-assembly and that the specific implementation of the nucleation process plays a significant role in determining the yield. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T09:18:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e2a828a822224a2ca528a0d0efd8276b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T09:18:42Z |
| publishDate | 2020-02-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eLife |
| spelling | doaj.art-e2a828a822224a2ca528a0d0efd8276b2022-12-22T04:32:16ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2020-02-01910.7554/eLife.51020Stochastic yield catastrophes and robustness in self-assemblyFlorian M Gartner0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9801-4288Isabella R Graf1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9169-9109Patrick Wilke2Philipp M Geiger3Erwin Frey4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8792-3358Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics (ASC) and Center for NanoScience (CeNS), Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, GermanyArnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics (ASC) and Center for NanoScience (CeNS), Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, GermanyArnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics (ASC) and Center for NanoScience (CeNS), Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, GermanyArnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics (ASC) and Center for NanoScience (CeNS), Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, GermanyArnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics (ASC) and Center for NanoScience (CeNS), Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, GermanyA guiding principle in self-assembly is that, for high production yield, nucleation of structures must be significantly slower than their growth. However, details of the mechanism that impedes nucleation are broadly considered irrelevant. Here, we analyze self-assembly into finite-sized target structures employing mathematical modeling. We investigate two key scenarios to delay nucleation: (i) by introducing a slow activation step for the assembling constituents and, (ii) by decreasing the dimerization rate. These scenarios have widely different characteristics. While the dimerization scenario exhibits robust behavior, the activation scenario is highly sensitive to demographic fluctuations. These demographic fluctuations ultimately disfavor growth compared to nucleation and can suppress yield completely. The occurrence of this stochastic yield catastrophe does not depend on model details but is generic as soon as number fluctuations between constituents are taken into account. On a broader perspective, our results reveal that stochasticity is an important limiting factor for self-assembly and that the specific implementation of the nucleation process plays a significant role in determining the yield.https://elifesciences.org/articles/51020self-assemblystochastic effectsyield optimizationmathematical modeling |
| spellingShingle | Florian M Gartner Isabella R Graf Patrick Wilke Philipp M Geiger Erwin Frey Stochastic yield catastrophes and robustness in self-assembly eLife self-assembly stochastic effects yield optimization mathematical modeling |
| title | Stochastic yield catastrophes and robustness in self-assembly |
| title_full | Stochastic yield catastrophes and robustness in self-assembly |
| title_fullStr | Stochastic yield catastrophes and robustness in self-assembly |
| title_full_unstemmed | Stochastic yield catastrophes and robustness in self-assembly |
| title_short | Stochastic yield catastrophes and robustness in self-assembly |
| title_sort | stochastic yield catastrophes and robustness in self assembly |
| topic | self-assembly stochastic effects yield optimization mathematical modeling |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/51020 |
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