Scialdone, Antonio and Nicodemi, Mario (2009) DNA loci cross-talk through thermodynamics. Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, Vol.20 (Articl). ISSN 1110-7243

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Abstract

The recognition and pairing of specific DNA loci, though crucial for a plenty of important cellular processes, are produced by still mysterious physical mechanisms. We propose the first quantitative model from Statistical Mechanics, able to clarify the interaction allowing such “DNA cross-talk” events. Soluble molecules, which bind some DNA recognition sequences, produce an effective attraction between distant DNA loci; if their affinity, their concentration, and the relative DNA binding sites number exceed given thresholds, DNA colocalization occurs as a result of a thermodynamic phase transition. In this paper, after a concise report on some of the most recent experimental results, we introduce our model and carry out a detailed “in silico” analysis of it, by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Our studies, while rationalize several experimental observations, result in very interesting and testable predictions.

Item Type:	Journal Item
Subjects:	Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions:	Faculty of Science > Physics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	DNA -- Research, Thermodynamics -- Research, Phase transformations (Statistical physics), Statistical mechanics
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology
Publisher:	Hindawi Publishing Corp.
ISSN:	1110-7243
Date:	8 July 2009
Volume:	Vol.20
Number:	Articl
Identification Number:	10.1155/2009/516723
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Funder:	CINECA, Istituto Nazionale Fisica della Materia (INFM)
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URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/2159

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