Elastic correlations in nucleosomal DNA structure.

Journal article

The structure of DNA in the nucleosome core particle is studied using an elastic model that incorporates anisotropy in the bending energetics and twist-bend coupling. Using the experimentally determined structure of nucleosomal DNA [T. J. Richmond and C. A. Davey, Nature (London) 423, 145 (2003)], it is shown that elastic correlations exist between twist, roll, tilt, and stretching of DNA, as well as the distance between phosphate groups. The twist-bend coupling term is shown to be able to capture these correlations to a large extent, and a fit to the experimental data yields a new estimate of G = 25 nm for the value of the twist-bend coupling constant.

Authors: Mohammad-Rafiee, F; Golestanian, R

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Physical Review Letters
• Volume: 94
• Issue: 23
• Pages: 238102
• Publication date: 2005-06-01
• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.94.238102
• EISSN: 1079-7114
• ISSN: 0031-9007
• Language: English
• Keywords: Fourier Analysis; Nucleosomes; Elasticity; Computer Simulation; Nucleic Acid Conformation; Models, Chemical; DNA