title: Structural motifs of biomolecules.
abstract: Biomolecular structures are assemblies of emergent anisotropic building modules such as uniaxial helices or biaxial strands. We provide an approach to understanding a marginally compact phase of matter that is occupied by proteins and DNA. This phase, which is in some respects analogous to the liquid crystal phase for chain molecules, stabilizes a range of shapes that can be obtained by sequence-independent interactions occurring intra- and intermolecularly between polymeric molecules. We present a singularity-free self-interaction for a tube in the continuum limit and show that this results in the tube being positioned in the marginally compact phase. Our work provides a unified framework for understanding the building blocks of biomolecules.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, 104 Davey Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. banavar@psu.edu
authors.forename: Jayanth R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Banavar
authors.forename: Trinh Xuan
authors.initials: TX
authors.lastname: Hoang
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Maddocks
authors.forename: Amos
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maritan
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Poletto
authors.forename: Andrzej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stasiak
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Trovato
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D019906:Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins; D004247:DNA