https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2005-10067-9
Focus Point
Polymer chain models of DNA and chromatin
Division Biophysics of Macromolecules, German Cancer Research Center, Im Neuenheimer Feld 580, D-69120, Heidelberg, Germany
* e-mail: jl@dkfz-heidelberg.de
Received:
30
September
2005
Accepted:
31
January
2006
Published online:
20
March
2006
Many properties of the genome in the cell nucleus can be understood by modeling DNA and chromatin as a flexible polymer chain. This article introduces into current models for such a coarse-grained description and reviews some recent results from our own group. Examples given are the unrolling of DNA from the histone core and the response of the 30nm chromatin fiber to mechanical stretching.
PACS: 87.15.-v Biomolecules: structure and physical properties – / 87.15.Aa Theory and modeling; computer simulation – / 87.16.Sr Chromosomes, histones –
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag, 2006
