Structural motifs of biomolecules.
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.
Banavar
Jayanth R
JR
Department of Physics, 104 Davey Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. banavar@psu.edu
Hoang
Trinh Xuan
TX
Maddocks
John H
JH
Maritan
Amos
A
Poletto
Chiara
C
Stasiak
Andrzej
A
Trovato
Antonio
A
D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D019906:Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*
D011506:Proteins; D004247:DNA