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Updated: Apr 7, 2026

Self-assembly of Complex Two-dimensional Shapes from Single-stranded DNA Tiles
Published on: May 8, 2015
Two Adhesive Sites Can Enhance the Knotting Probability of DNA
Saeed Najafi1, Raffaello Potestio1
1Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
Abstract:
Self-entanglement, or knotting, is entropically favored in long polymers. Relatively short polymers such as proteins can knot as well, but in this case the entanglement is mainly driven by fine-tuned, sequence-specific interactions. The relation between the sequence of a long polymer and its topological state is here investigated by means of a coarse-grained model of DNA. We demonstrate that the introduction of two adhesive regions along the sequence of a self-avoiding chain substantially increases the probability of forming a knot.
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