Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2011 Oct 27;7(10):e1002229. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002229

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

Scialdone et al.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.

PMC Copyright notice

The figure summarizes the system possible states and how they change by action of the Conformation and the Symmetry Breaking switch (top pictures are from MC simulations, bottom ones are schematic drawings). The switches have a thermodynamic nature and are regulated by increasing, e.g., and (i.e., molecule concentration and homotypic interaction) above precise threshold values, and . A) For and , the polymers are found in a random open state. B) For , a conformation change is activated: type- and type- regions stably interact with type-, and a two loop conformation is established symmetrically on the two polymers. C) If , a symmetry breaking occurs as the type- loop persists on one, randomly selected, polymer (where type- loop is released), whereas the other polymer takes the opposite conformation. This results from the self-assembling of a single major aggregate of type-A and of type-B molecules competing to bind to type- region.

Inline graphic — The figure summarizes the system possible states and how they change by action of the Conformation and the Symmetry Breaking switch (top pictures are from MC simulations, bottom ones are schematic drawings). The switches have a thermodynamic nature and are regulated by increasing, e.g., and (i.e., molecule concentration and homotypic interaction) above precise threshold values, and . A) For and , the polymers are found in a random open state. B) For , a conformation change is activated: type- and type- regions stably interact with type-, and a two loop conformation is established symmetrically on the two polymers. C) If , a symmetry breaking occurs as the type- loop persists on one, randomly selected, polymer (where type- loop is released), whereas the other polymer takes the opposite conformation. This results from the self-assembling of a single major aggregate of type-A and of type-B molecules competing to bind to type- region.