Semiflexibility properties, polyelectrolyte

The role of semiflexibility of the polymer backbone on the dynamical properties is necessary to explore the dynamical properties of biologically relevant polyelectrolytes. Orientational correlations among molecules are expected to enhance the richness of the dynamical properties. 

From the physics point of view, the system that we deal with here—a semiflexible polyelectrolyte that is packaged by protein complexes regularly spaced along its contour—is of a complexity that still allows the application of analytical and numerical models. For quantitative prediction of chromatin properties from such models, certain physical parameters must be known such as the dimensions of the nucleosomes and DNA, their surface charge, interactions, and mechanical flexibility. Current structural research on chromatin, oligonucleosomes, and DNA has brought us into a position where many such elementary physical parameters are known. Thus, our understanding of the components of the chromatin fiber is now at a level where predictions of physical properties of the fiber are possible and can be experimentally tested. 

The essential requisite for the present scenario is the unique property of the charged torus, that is, its instability to thicken beyond a certain size. Therefore, its applicability is not limited to the case, in which the torus thickness is limited by the electrostatic mechanism. For example, we expect that surfactant molecules, which are sometimes used as condensing agents, may affect such structural property through the packing inside folded structures. Note also that the presence of the finite-sized bundles is rather ubiquitous in other semiflexible polyelectrolyte systems and biopolymer solutions. Seeking for its consequences would be a yet uncultivated problem. 

The scaling approach can also be applied to describe properties of semiflexible polyelectrolytes. In this case, the nirmber of monomers in the electrostatic blob g and the blob size are related by D Substitution of this... 

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