Sucking genes into pores: Insight into driven translocation

Flexible polymers such as long DNA, RNA molecules, and proteins, can pass through a narrow pore whose size is comparable to their molecular thickness. We highlight the richness and complexity involved in the dynamics of this unique mode of molecular transport, called translocation, actively driven by external forces. In particular, the process takes place in the condition far from equilibrium accompanying of large conformational distortion in line with the propagation of the tensile force along the chain backbone. A general framework is proposed, which captures such essential features, whereby can account for reported various experimental data from a unified viewpoint.