We investigate condensation of a long confined chiral nematic polymer inside a spherical enclosure, mimicking condensation of DNA inside a viral capsid. The Landau-de Gennes nematic free-energy Ansatz appropriate for nematic polymers allows us to study the condensation process in detail with different boundary conditions at the enclosing wall that simulate repulsive and attractive polymer-surface interactions. By increasing the chirality, we observe a transformation of the toroidal condensate into a closed surface with an increasing genus, in some respects akin to the ordered domain formation observed in cryo-microscopy of bacteriophages.
F.35 Other
COBISS.SI-ID: 2523492Invited talk at the ILCC 2012, Mainz, Germany
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 2465636We analyzed the dielectric response of DNA nad hyaluronic acid solutions in various concentration regimes and for various ionic strengths. We observe two relaxation peaks in the interval of 100 Hz - 1000 MHz. The high frequency peak correpsonds to collective reponse of the solution, while the low frequency peak is due to single molecule response.
F.35 Other