Chirality modifies the interaction between knots

Autor(en)

Saeed Najafi, Luca Tubiana, Rudolf Podgornik, Raffaello Potestio

Abstrakt

In this study we consider an idealization of a typical optical tweezers experiment involving a semiflexible double-knotted polymer, with steric hindrance and persistence length matching those of dsDNA in high salt concentration, under strong stretching. Using exhaustive molecular-dynamics simulations we show that not only does a double-knotted dsDNA filament under tension possess a free-energy minimum when the two knots are intertwined, but also that the depth of this minimum depends on the relative chirality of the two knots. We rationalize this dependence of the effective interaction on the chirality in terms of a competition between chain entropy and bending energy.

Organisation(en)

Computergestützte Physik und Physik der Weichen Materie

Externe Organisation(en)

Max-Planck-Institut für Polymerforschung, University of Ljubljana

Journal

Europhysics Letters

Band

114

Anzahl der Seiten

6

ISSN

0295-5075

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/114/50007

Publikationsdatum

06-2016

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

106006 Biophysik

Schlagwörter

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/ffec8c60-924f-4e2f-951f-b42dee0cd99c