DNA knotting in spooling like conformations in bacteriophages (Q1001563)

The authors propose a model to explain the geometric organization of the DNA in bacteriophages. In particular, the proposed model should help to account for the distributions of complex knots found when examining DNA extracted from bacteriophage P4 capsids. Of particular interest are the chirality biases in the arrangement of DNA molecules inside the capsid (this chirality is observed by the absence of the achiral figure-eight knot in the observed knot distributions). The proposed model is a randomized version of one of the most popular models: the coaxially spooled model. Analytical and numerical results for the properties of the random polygons (knots) generated using this model are presented. The model can easily generate complex knotted conformations and although it accounts for some chirality of the organization of the DNA molecules inside bacteriophage capsids, the model does not fully explain the experimental data.