Physical Questions Posed by DNA Condensation
Abstract
Description
When multivalent salts are added to dilute DNA solution, the DNA chains condense into bundles of a well-defined size. We explore two physical problems motivated by this phenomenon: the origin of the attractive interactions between the highly-negatively charged DNA chains that cause them to concentrate into bundles, and the mechanism that provents the bundles from growing indefinitely large.
16 pages, 1 figure, to appear in "Physical Chemistry of Polyelectrolytes," ed. T. Radeva (Marcel Dekker, NY, 2000)
16 pages, 1 figure, to appear in "Physical Chemistry of Polyelectrolytes," ed. T. Radeva (Marcel Dekker, NY, 2000)