Regensburg 2010 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 28: Poster: Biopolymers and Biomaterials
CPP 28.1: Poster
Mittwoch, 24. März 2010, 17:30–19:00, Poster C
Knots in viral DNA and proteins: A Monte Carlo test with simplified models — •Daniel Reith1, Thomas Wüst2, Peter Cifra3, Daniel Bölinger4, and Peter Virnau1 — 1Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany — 2The Center for Simulational Physics, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-2451, USA — 3Polymer Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 842 36 Bratislava, Slovakia — 4Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, 82152 Martinsried, Germany
We investigate the influence of chain stiffness on self-entanglements of a single polymer chain with Monte Carlo simulations. Surprisingly, the number of knotted chains in our equilibrium ensemble increases manifold if a small chain stiffness is imposed and stays large if the stiffness is increased to a point at which the polymer is coiled up inside the capsid. Implications on the internal structure of DNA in viral capsids are discussed. In the second part, we test the influence of sequence on single globular heteropolymers. The entanglements of these states turn out to be very similar to those observed in homopolymers of comparable density. As knots are abundant in globular homopolymers these simulations cannot solve the conundrum why only few knots are observed in globular protein structures[1,2].
P. Virnau, Y. Kantor, and M. Kardar, J. Am. Chem. Soc 127, 15102 (2005).
P. Virnau, L. A. Mirny, and M. Kardar, PLoS Comput. Biol. 2, e122 (2006).