title: Cation-induced polyelectrolyte-polyelectrolyte attraction in solutions of DNA and nucleosome core particles.
abstract: The paper reviews our current studies on the experimentally induced cation compaction and aggregation in solutions of DNA and nucleosome core particles and the theoretical modelling of these processes using coarse-grained continuum models with explicit mobile ions and with all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Recent experimental results on DNA condensation by cationic oligopeptides and the effects of added salt are presented. The results of MD simulations modelling DNA-DNA attraction due to the presence of multivalent ions including the polyamine spermidine and fragments of histone tails, which exhibit bridging between adjacent DNA molecules, are discussed. Experimental data on NCP aggregation, using recombinantly prepared systems are summarized. Literature data and our results of studying of the NCP solutions are compared with predictions of coarse-grained MD simulations, including the important ion correlation as well as bridging mechanisms. The importance of the results to chromatin folding and aggregation is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Division of Structural and Computational Biology, School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637551, Singapore.
authors.forename: Nikolay
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Korolev
authors.forename: Alexander P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Lyubartsev
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nordenskiöld
mesh_terms: D042002:Chromatin Assembly and Disassembly; D004247:DNA / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D006657:Histones / Q000737:chemistry; D008956:Models, Chemical; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009707:Nucleosomes / Q000737:chemistry*; D011073:Polyamines / Q000737:chemistry*; D000071228:Polyelectrolytes
chemical_list: D004247:DNA; D006657:Histones; D009707:Nucleosomes; D011073:Polyamines; D000071228:Polyelectrolytes