Related papers: Sequence-specific size, structure, and stability o…
We use Brownian dynamics simulations and advanced topological profiling methods to characterize the out-of-equilibrium evolution of self-entanglement in linear polymers confined into nano-channels and under periodic compression. We…
Knots across various length scales, from micro to macro-scales, such as polymers, DNA, shoelaces, and surgery, serving their unique mechanical properties. The shape of ideal knots has been extensively studied in the context of knot theory,…
Advanced Monte Carlo simulations are used to study the effect of nano-slit confinement on metric and topological properties of model DNA chains. We consider both linear and circularised chains with contour lengths in the 1.2--4.8 $\mu$m…
DNA unzipping by nanopore translocation has implications in diverse contexts, from polymer physics to single-molecule manipulation to DNA-enzyme interactions in biological systems. Here we use molecular dynamics simulations and a…
Focusing on a small set of proteins that i) fold in a concerted, all-or-none fashion and ii) do not contain knots or slipknots, we show that the Gauss linking integral, the torsion and the number of sequence-distant contacts provide…
We present new computations of approximately length-minimizing polygons with fixed thickness. These curves model the centerlines of "tight" knotted tubes with minimal length and fixed circular cross-section. Our curves approximately…
Assemblies of ring DNA and proteins, such as kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) and the chainmail-like network of the HK97 bacteriophage capsid, form "Olympic" topologies that govern the dynamics of gene-regulatory proteins, cellular metabolites, and…
Tethered particle motion (TPM) --- the motion of a micro- or nanoparticle tethered to a substrate by a macromolecule --- is a system that has proven extremely useful for its ability to reveal physical features of the tether, because the…
Protein MJ0366 is a hypothetical protein from Methanocaldococcus jannaschii that has a rare and complex knot in its structure. The knot is a right-handed trefoil knot that involves about half of the protein's residues. In this article, we…
Using a lattice model of polymers in a tube, we define one way to characterise different configurations of a given knot as either "local" or "non-local" and, for several ring polymer models, we provide both theoretical and numerical…
The three dimensional structure of a protein is an outcome of the interactions of its constituent amino acids in 3D space. Considering the amino acids as nodes and the interactions among them as edges we have constructed and analyzed…
Most amino acids are encoded by multiple synonymous codons. For an amino acid, some of its synonymous codons are used much more rarely than others. Analyses of positions of such rare codons in protein sequences revealed that rare codons can…
The advent of solid state nanodevices allows for interrogating the physico-chemical properties of a polyelectrolyte chain by electrophoretically driving it through a nanopore. Salient dynamical aspects of the translocation process have been…
We investigate the statistical mechanics of a torsionally constrained polymer. The polymer is modeled as a fluctuating rod with bend stiffness A kT and twist stiffness C kT. In such a model, thermal bend fluctuations couple geometrically to…
Though the problem of sequence-reversed protein folding is largely unexplored, one might speculate that reversed native protein sequences should be significantly more foldable than purely random heteropolymer sequences. In this article, we…
We prove the existence of families of distinct isotopy classes of physical unknots through the key concept of parametrised thickness. These unknots have prescribed length, tube thickness, a uniform bound on curvature, and cannot be…
Knots and links are fascinating and intricate topological objects. Their influence spans from DNA and molecular chemistry to vortices in superfluid helium, defects in liquid crystals and cosmic strings in the early universe. Here, we find…
Protein folding is the intricate process by which a linear sequence of amino acids self-assembles into a unique three-dimensional structure. Protein folding kinetics is the study of pathways and time-dependent mechanisms a protein undergoes…
The amount and type of self-entanglement of DNA filaments is significantly affected by spatial confinement, which is ubiquitous in biological systems. Motivated by recent advancements in single DNA molecule experiments based on nanofluidic…
We develop a model characterizing all possible knots and links arising from recombination starting with a twist knot substrate, extending previous work of Buck and Flapan. We show that all knot or link products fall into three…