title: Making contacts on a nucleic acid polymer.
abstract: The interaction of proteins bound at distant sites on a nucleic acid chain plays an important role in many molecular biological processes. Contact between the proteins is established by looping of the intervening polymer, which can comprise either double- or single-stranded DNA or RNA, or interphase or metaphase chromatin. The effectiveness of this process, as well as the optimal separation distance, is highly dependent on the flexibility and conformation of the linker. This article reviews how the probability of looping-mediated interactions is calculated for different nucleic acid polymers. In addition, the application of the equations to the analysis of experimental data is illustrated.
authors.affiliation: Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Organisation komplexer Genome (H0700), Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, Germany. Karten.Rippe@dkfz.de
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rippe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001704:Biopolymers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D002843:Chromatin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D004270:DNA, Circular / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D011485:Protein Binding; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers; D002843:Chromatin; D004270:DNA, Circular; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins; D012313:RNA; D004247:DNA