2003/05/15 by Theo Odijk, Odijk, Theo
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Bacteriophages and microbial interactions #FOS: Biological sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Nanopore and Nanochannel Transport Studies #Protein Structure and Dynamics #Quantitative Biology (q-bio) #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #cond-mat.soft #q-bio
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0305354
32 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phil.Trans.Roy.Soc.A ; special issue entitled "Mechanics of DNA", editor J.M.T.Thompson
arxiv created 2003/05/15 · openalex publication_date 2003/05/15 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Several controversial issues concerning the packing of linear DNA in bacteriophages and globules are discussed. Exact relations for the osmotic pressure, capsid pressure and loading force are derived in terms of the hole size inside phages under the assumption that the DNA globule has a uniform density. A new electrostatic model is introduced for computing the osmotic pressure of rodlike polyelectrolytes at very high concentrations. At intermediate packing, a reptation model is considered for DNA diffusing within a toroidal globule. Under tight packing conditions, a model of Coulomb sliding friction is proposed. A general discussion is given of our current understanding of the statics and dynamics of confined DNA in the context of to the following experiments: characterization of the liquid crystalline phases, X-ray scattering by phages, osmotic stress measurements, cyclization within globules and single-molecule determination ofthe loading forces.