Knot-controlled ejection of a polymer from a virus capsid

Details Knot-controlled ejection of a polymer from a virus capsid Knot-controlled ejection of a polymer from a virus capsid

2009-01-15

arxiv.org/abs/0901.2293v1

Phys. Rev. Lett. 102 (2009) 088101

Biology

Quantitative Biology

Biomolecules

4 pages, 5 figures

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.088101

We present a numerical study of the effect of knotting on the ejection of flexible and semiflexible polymers from a spherical, virus-like capsid. The polymer ejection rate is primarily controlled by the knot, which moves to the hole in the capsid and then acts as a ratchet. Polymers with more complex knots eject more slowly and, for large knots, the knot type, and not the flexibility of the polymer, determines the rate of ejection. We discuss the relation of our results to the ejection of DNA from viral capsids and conjecture that this process has the biological advantage of unknotting the DNA before it enters a cell.

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