Nonuniform Donnan Equilibrium within Bacteriophages Packed with Dna

TL;DR

This paper models the nonuniform distribution of DNA within bacteriophages, revealing inhomogeneous Donnan effects and regions free of DNA due to curvature stress and electrostatic interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a nonlinear model linking DNA density to curvature, predicting inhomogeneous Donnan effects and free DNA regions inside phages.

Findings

Identification of nonuniform DNA density distribution

Prediction of DNA-free regions inside bacteriophages

Quantitative computation of hole sizes in DNA packing

Abstract

The curvature stress of DNA packed inside a phage is balanced against its electrostatic self-interaction. The DNA density is supposed nonuniform and as a result the Donnan effect is also inhomogeneous. The coarse-grained DNA density is a nonlinear function of the DNA radius of curvature at a given position inside the bacteriophage. It turns out that a region (or regions) exists totally free from DNA. The size of such holes is computed.