Invited Speaker
Giovanni Dietler
DNA Properties in 2 Dimensions
In order to understand the various stratagems that cells have devised to furl and unfurl their genetic code during transcription and to package it in tiny space is necessary to shed light on the statistical mechanical properties of DNA. At the same time, DNA represents an ideal tool to study and verify, at the single molecule level, the properties of charged polymers (polyelectrolytes). Traditionally, two regimes are expected for DNA: one at short length scales (smaller than the persistence length $\ell_p$) and one at large length scales ($L>>\ell_p$). Here we highlight experimentally for linear and circular single-stranded and double-stranded DNA properties like the shape, the effect of the topology on the statistical properties and the persistence length. Additionally, the presence of an intermediate region, characterized by a gaussian behavior, is evidenced for dsDNA in 2 dimensions.