Polymer reptation and nucleosome repositioning
Soft Condensed Matter
2009-11-07 v1 Biomolecules
Abstract
We consider how beads can diffuse along a chain that wraps them, without becoming displaced from the chain; our proposed mechanism is analogous to the reptation of "stored length" in more familiar situations of polymer dynamics. The problem arises in the case of globular aggregates of proteins (histones) that are wound by DNA in the chromosomes of plants and animals; these beads (nucleosomes) are multiply wrapped and yet are able to reposition themselves over long distances, while remaining bound by the DNA chain.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0102133,
title = {Polymer reptation and nucleosome repositioning},
author = {H. Schiessel and J. Widom and R. F. Bruinsma and W. M. Gelbart},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0102133},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
9 pages, including 2 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. Lett