title: Two Adhesive Sites Can Enhance the Knotting Probability of DNA.
abstract: Self-entanglement, or knotting, is entropically favored in long polymers. Relatively short polymers such as proteins can knot as well, but in this case the entanglement is mainly driven by fine-tuned, sequence-specific interactions. The relation between the sequence of a long polymer and its topological state is here investigated by means of a coarse-grained model of DNA. We demonstrate that the introduction of two adhesive regions along the sequence of a self-avoiding chain substantially increases the probability of forming a knot.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Saeed
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Najafi
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Raffaello
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Potestio
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001483:Base Sequence; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D011336:Probability
chemical_list: D004247:DNA