TY  - JOUR
A1  - Shin, Jaeoh
A1  - Cherstvy, Andrey G.
A1  - Metzler, Ralf
T1  - Polymer looping is controlled by macromolecular crowding, spatial confinement, and chain stiffness
T2  - ACS Macro Letters
N2  - We study by extensive computer simulations the looping characteristics of linear polymers with varying persistence length inside a spherical cavity in the presence of macromolecular crowding. For stiff chains, the looping probability and looping time reveal wildly oscillating patterns as functions of the chain length. The effects of crowding differ dramatically for flexible versus stiff polymers. While for flexible chains the looping kinetics is slowed down by the crowders, for stiffer chains the kinetics turns out to be either decreased or facilitated, depending on the polymer length. For severe confinement, the looping kinetics may become strongly facilitated by crowding. Our findings are of broad impact for DNA looping in the crowded and compartmentalized interior of living biological cells.
Y1  - 2015
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/39193
SN  - 2161-1653
VL  - 4
IS  - 2
SP  - 202
EP  - 206
PB  - American Chemical Society
CY  - Washington
ER  -