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Updated: Jun 5, 2025

DNA Nanotubes as a Versatile Tool to Study Semiflexible Polymers
Published on: October 25, 2017
Kinetoplast DNA: a polymer physicist's topological Olympic dream
1School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Peter Guthrie Tait Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, UK.
Abstract:
All life forms are miraculous, but some are more inexplicable than others. Trypanosomes are by far one of the most puzzling organisms on Earth: their mitochondrial genome, also called kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) forms an Olympic-ring-like network of interlinked DNA circles, challenging conventional paradigms in both biology and physics. In this review, I will discuss kDNA from the astonished perspective of a polymer physicist and tell a story of how a single sub-cellular structure from a blood-dwelling parasite is inspiring generations of polymer chemists and physicists to create new catenated materials.
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