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Generalized electrostatic model of the wrapping of DNA around oppositely charged proteins
Author(s) -
Arcesi Luca,
Penna Giovanni La,
Perico Angelo
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
biopolymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 125
eISSN - 1097-0282
pISSN - 0006-3525
DOI - 10.1002/bip.20711
Subject(s) - dna , nucleosome , preprint , chemistry , histone octamer , histone , electrostatics , dna binding protein , supramolecular chemistry , biophysics , nanotechnology , computational biology , crystallography , physics , biology , biochemistry , gene , transcription factor , quantum mechanics , materials science , crystal structure
Histonelike proteins in prokaryotes and histone octamers in eukaryotes carry large positive charges, which are responsible of strong electrostatic interactions with DNA. As a result, DNA wraps around proteins and genetic information is condensed. We describe a generalized model of these electrostatic interactions mediated by salt that explains the wrapping of DNA around the nucleosome octamer, around remodeling factors in eukaryotes and around histonelike proteins in prokaryotes. It comes out that small changes in protein dimension and charge produce large effects in the supramolecular DNA–protein architecture. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 86: 127–135, 2007. This article was originally published online as an accepted preprint. The “Published Online” date corresponds to the preprint version. You can request a copy of the preprint by emailing the Biopolymers editorial office at biopolymers@wiley.com