Stabilization of helical macromolecular phases by confined bending
Abstract
By means of extensive replica-exchange simulations of generic coarse-grained models for helical polymers, we systematically investigate the structural transitions into all possible helical phases for flexible and semiflexible elastic polymers with self-interaction under the influence of torsion barriers. The competing interactions lead to a variety of conformational phases including disordered helical arrangements, single helices, and ordered, tertiary helix bundles. Most remarkably, we find that a bending restraint entails a clear separation and stabilization of the helical phases. This aids in understanding why semiflexible polymers such as double-stranded DNA tend to form pronounced helical structures and proteins often exhibit an abundance of helical structures, such as helix bundles, within their tertiary structure.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1509.06454,
title = {Stabilization of helical macromolecular phases by confined bending},
author = {Matthew J. Williams and Michael Bachmann},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1509.06454},
year = {2015}
}