Regensburg 2007 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 10: DNA: supercoils, knots and melting

BP 10.4: Talk

Tuesday, March 27, 2007, 15:00–15:15, H43

Segregation of flexible polymers in confinement — •Axel Arnold — AMOLF, Amsterdam, Niederlande

During the cell replication cycle of a bacterium, it is necessary for it to replicate its DNA and separate the two resulting DNA strings such that exactly one string goes to each of the two daughter cells. It is commonly believed that a not yet detected active process has to be involved in this separation. However, scaling arguments show that the confinement of two polymers in a pore alone leads to an entropy-driven segregation which resembles an active process. Here, MD simulation results are presented which confirm the scaling predictions for the segregation time.