Intrachain Ordering andSegregation of Polymers underConfinement

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

<P>We study the relationship between intrachain orderingand segregationtendency of two polymers confined in a cylindrical space. We findthe chains segregate spontaneously even outside de Gennes’linear-ordering scaling regime, in which each chain is a linear arrayof blobs. When the chains are weakly compressed against each other,linear ordering is well preserved and the chains remain segregated.On the other hand, for moderate compression, new chain-ordering unitsemerge at intermediate length scales, within which blobs are randomlypacked; yet these units (termed “superblobs”) are linearlyordered, and the chains still segregate in the confined space. Asthe chains continue to be compressed, the linear regime disappears,but the chains can resist mixing effectively, more so in a more asymmetricspace. We conclude that the linearly ordered <I>E. coli</I> chromosome is in the segregation regime.</P><P><B>Graphic Abstract</B>
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