DNA Spools under Tension

TL;DR

This paper develops a general theory for the non-equilibrium behavior of DNA-spools under tension, explaining recent experimental phenomena like nucleosome unwrapping and DNA condensate unwrapping, offering new insights into chromatin stability.

Contribution

It introduces a unified theoretical framework that explains the quantized unwrapping of DNA structures under tension, linking different experimental observations.

Findings

Explains quantized unwrapping of nucleosomes and DNA condensates.

Provides a unified theory for DNA-spool behavior under tension.

Offers new insights into chromatin stability and dynamics.

Abstract

DNA-spools, structures in which DNA is wrapped and helically coiled onto itself or onto a protein core are ubiquitous in nature. We develop a general theory describing the non-equilibrium behavior of DNA-spools under linear tension. Two puzzling and seemingly unrelated recent experimental findings, the sudden quantized unwrapping of nucleosomes and that of DNA toroidal condensates under tension are theoretically explained and shown to be of the same origin. The study provides new insights into nucleosome and chromatin fiber stability and dynamics.