Tl. Madden et J. Herzfeld, CROWDING-INDUCED ORGANIZATION OF CYTOSKELETAL ELEMENTS .1. SPONTANEOUS DEMIXING OF CYTOSOLIC PROTEINS AND MODEL FILAMENTS TO FORM FILAMENT BUNDLES, Biophysical journal, 65(3), 1993, pp. 1147-1154
The theory for the effects of crowding on the behavior of reversibly s
elf-assembling solutes is extended to mixtures containing nonassemblin
g solutes. The theory predicts that excluded volume will cause dramati
c demixing into domains of long, tightly packed, highly aligned fibers
coexisting with an isotropic solution of unaggregated species. It sug
gests that the bundling of fibers in cells is entropically driven and
that accessory binding proteins in the cytoplasm, serve to modulate th
e process rather than create it.