A mechanical model of bacteriophage DNA ejection

Rahul Arun; Sandip Ghosal

doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2017.05.044

A mechanical model of bacteriophage DNA ejection

Rahul Arun, Sandip Ghosal^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Mechanical Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Single molecule experiments on bacteriophages show an exponential scaling for the dependence of mobility on the length of DNA within the capsid. It has been suggested that this could be due to the “capstan mechanism” – the exponential amplification of friction forces that result when a rope is wound around a cylinder as in a ship's capstan. Here we describe a desktop experiment that illustrates the effect. Though our model phage is a million times larger, it exhibits the same scaling observed in single molecule experiments.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	2386-2390
Number of pages	5
Journal	Physics Letters, Section A: General, Atomic and Solid State Physics
Volume	381
Issue number	30
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physleta.2017.05.044
State	Published - Aug 13 2017

Keywords

Bacteriophage
Capstan model
Cell mechanics
Coulomb–Amonton law
DNA translocation
Nanoscale friction

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Physics and Astronomy(all)

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10.1016/j.physleta.2017.05.044

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title = "A mechanical model of bacteriophage DNA ejection",

abstract = "Single molecule experiments on bacteriophages show an exponential scaling for the dependence of mobility on the length of DNA within the capsid. It has been suggested that this could be due to the “capstan mechanism” – the exponential amplification of friction forces that result when a rope is wound around a cylinder as in a ship's capstan. Here we describe a desktop experiment that illustrates the effect. Though our model phage is a million times larger, it exhibits the same scaling observed in single molecule experiments.",

keywords = "Bacteriophage, Capstan model, Cell mechanics, Coulomb–Amonton law, DNA translocation, Nanoscale friction",

author = "Rahul Arun and Sandip Ghosal",

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N2 - Single molecule experiments on bacteriophages show an exponential scaling for the dependence of mobility on the length of DNA within the capsid. It has been suggested that this could be due to the “capstan mechanism” – the exponential amplification of friction forces that result when a rope is wound around a cylinder as in a ship's capstan. Here we describe a desktop experiment that illustrates the effect. Though our model phage is a million times larger, it exhibits the same scaling observed in single molecule experiments.

AB - Single molecule experiments on bacteriophages show an exponential scaling for the dependence of mobility on the length of DNA within the capsid. It has been suggested that this could be due to the “capstan mechanism” – the exponential amplification of friction forces that result when a rope is wound around a cylinder as in a ship's capstan. Here we describe a desktop experiment that illustrates the effect. Though our model phage is a million times larger, it exhibits the same scaling observed in single molecule experiments.

KW - Bacteriophage

KW - Capstan model

KW - Cell mechanics

KW - Coulomb–Amonton law

KW - DNA translocation

KW - Nanoscale friction

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A mechanical model of bacteriophage DNA ejection

Abstract

Keywords

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