Title:
DNA Condensate Morphology - Examples from the Test Tube and Nature

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dc.contributor.advisor Hud, Nicholas V.
dc.contributor.author Vilfan, Igor D. en_US
dc.contributor.committeeMember Doyle, Donald F.
dc.contributor.committeeMember Loren D. Willliams
dc.contributor.committeeMember Hernandez, Rigoberto
dc.contributor.committeeMember Roger M. Wartell
dc.contributor.department Chemistry and Biochemistry en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2005-09-16T15:06:31Z
dc.date.available 2005-09-16T15:06:31Z
dc.date.issued 2005-07-14 en_US
dc.description.abstract DNA condensates have attracted the attention of biophysicists, biochemists and polymer physicists for more than thirty years. In the biological community, the quest to understand DNA toroid formation has been motivated by its relevance to gene packing in certain viruses and by the potential use of DNA toroids in artificial gene delivery (e.g. gene therapy). In the physical sciences, DNA toroids are appreciated as a superb model system for studying particle formation by the collapse of a semiflexible, polyelectrolyte polymer. The thesis includes an analysis of the kinetic and thermodynamic factors governing DNA condensate morphology in solution, and discusses implications for future applications of DNA condensation in vitro as a model system for testing theories of polyelectrolyte collapse. In addition, DNA condensation by folded bovine protamine, a naturally occurring multivalent oligopeptide responsible for packing genomic DNA in bovine sperm cells, has been studied as well. The analysis of morphology, size, DNA strand packing density, and the stability of structural integrity of DNA condensates obtained with folded bovine protamines suggests that we have reconstituted native sperm cell chromatin. The results of this study were used to model the local structure of bovine sperm cell chromatin. en_US
dc.description.degree Ph.D. en_US
dc.format.extent 3806440 bytes
dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/7172
dc.language.iso en_US
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology en_US
dc.subject Polyelectrolytes en_US
dc.subject Nucleation
dc.subject Growth
dc.subject Toroid
dc.subject Chromatin
dc.title DNA Condensate Morphology - Examples from the Test Tube and Nature en_US
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Dissertation
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.advisor Hud, Nicholas V.
local.contributor.corporatename School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
local.contributor.corporatename College of Sciences
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication 32914b8e-b40c-41d2-872d-04991293374e
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication f1725b93-3ab8-4c47-a4c3-3596c03d6f1e
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 85042be6-2d68-4e07-b384-e1f908fae48a
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