Two-dimensional continuum percolation threshold for diffusing particles of nonzero radius.

Lateral diffusion in the plasma membrane is obstructed by proteins bound to the cytoskeleton. The most important parameter describing obstructed diffusion is the percolation threshold. The thresholds are well known for point tracers, but for tracers of nonzero radius, the threshold depends on the excluded area, not just the obstacle concentration. Here thresholds are obtained for circular obstacles on the continuum. Random obstacle configurations are generated by Brownian dynamics or Monte Carlo methods, the obstacles are immobilized, and the percolation threshold is obtained by solving a bond percolation problem on the Voronoi diagram of the obstacles. The percolation threshold is expressed as the diameter of the largest tracer that can cross a set of immobile obstacles at a prescribed number density. For random overlapping obstacles, the results agree with the known analytical solution quantitatively. When the obstacles are soft disks with a 1/r(12) repulsion, the percolating diameter is approximately 20% lower than for overlapping obstacles. A percolation model predicts that the threshold is highly sensitive to the tracer radius. To our knowledge, such a strong dependence has so far not been reported for the plasma membrane, suggesting that percolation is not the factor controlling lateral diffusion. A definitive experiment is proposed. Copyright 2010 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.