title: Twist in chiral interaction between biological helices.
abstract: Using an exact solution for the pair interaction potential, we show that long, rigid, chiral molecules with helical surface charge patterns have a preferential interaxial angle approximately sqrt[RH]/L, where L is the length of the molecules, R is the closest distance between their axes, and H is the helical pitch. Estimates based on this formula suggest a solution for the puzzle of small interaxial angles in alpha-helix bundles and in cholesteric phases of DNA.
authors.affiliation: Research Center "Jülich," D-52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Kornyshev
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Leikin
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation
chemical_list: D004247:DNA