2010/09/17 by Michael Harrison, Michael J. Harrison, Harrison, Michael J.
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Bacteriophages and microbial interactions #Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #Biomolecules (q-bio.BM) #FOS: Biological sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Legume Nitrogen Fixing Symbiosis #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Microtubule and mitosis dynamics #cond-mat.mes-hall #physics.bio-ph #q-bio.BM
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1009.3473
5 pages
arxiv created 2010/09/17 · openalex publication_date 2010/09/17 · arxiv updated 2010/09/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The role of thermal pressure fluctuations in the ejection of tightly packaged DNA from protein capsid shells is discussed in a model calculation. At equilibrium before ejection we assume the DNA is folded many times into a bundle of parallel segments that forms an equilibrium conformation at minimum free energy, which presses tightly against internal capsid walls. Using a canonical ensemble at temperature T we calculate internal pressure fluctuations against a slowly moving or static capsid mantle for an elastic continuum model of the folded DNA bundle. It is found that fluctuating pressure on the capsid mantle from thermal excitation of longitudinal acoustic vibrations in the bundle may have root-mean-square values which are several tens of atmospheres for typically small phage dimensions.