Citation:
Kindt, J. ; Tzlil, S. ; Ben-Shaul, A. ; Gelbart, W. M. . Dna Packaging And Ejection Forces In Bacteriophage. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2001, 98, 13671-13674.
Date Published:
NOV 20תקציר:
We calculate the forces required to package (or, equivalently, acting to eject) DNA into (from) a bacteriophage capsid, as a function of the loaded (ejected) length, under conditions for which the DNA is either self-repelling or self-attracting. Through computer simulation and analytical theory, we find the loading force to increase more than 10-fold (to tens of piconewtons) during the final third of the loading process; correspondingly, the internal pressure drops 10-fold to a few atmospheres (matching the osmotic pressure in the cell) upon ejection of just a small fraction of the phage genome. We also determine an evolution of the arrangement of packaged DNA from toroidal to spool-like structures.