Kinetics of topological transitions in DNA mediated by topoisomerases and recombinases

Abstract

Topological properties of DNA (loop formation, supercoiling, knotting, and catenation) play critical roles in biological regulation and genome organization. The influence of DNA topology spans an enormous range of length scales: from the base-pair level to large chromosomal domains. Although there is abundant evidence that DNA topology and DNA supercoiling, in particular, constitutes an important mechanism for exerting “action at a distance” in genomes, we lack effective and generalizable polymer-based models for investigating the absolute and relative rates of DNA topology-dependent processes.