DNA Knots

DNA knot distances

speaker: Isabel Darcy (The University of Iowa)

abstract: Topoisomerases and recombinases are two classes of proteins which can knot circular DNA. Type II topoisomerases are proteins which cut one double-stranded DNA segment, allowing a second DNA segment to pass through before resealing the break. This is mathematically modeled by changing a crossing. Recombinases break two segments of DNA, exchanging the DNA ends before resealing the breaks. This action can be mathematically modeled by smoothing a crossing. Distances between knots have been defined based upon the minimum number of times these proteins must act to convert one knot into another knot. Methods for calculating these distances will be discussed. Applications and ways to visualize these distances via knotplot will also be discussed.

timetable:
Wed 15 Jun, 14:30 - 15:30, Aula Dini
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