Figure 7. Analysis of conformational properties of PLP polymers.
Results are shown for three different PLP chain lengths viz., n=10, 20, and 40. Each column corresponds to a specific joint distribution. Column 1 shows the joint distributions, ρ(nkink, Rg), that quantify the inverse correlation between radius of gyration and the number of kinks, nkink. Column 2 shows the joint distributions ρ(nkink, ls). The broad distribution of segments lengths, ls, shown along the ordinates, makes the point that kinks can occur with uniform likelihood anywhere within a PLP chain. Column 3 plots the joint distributions, ρ(ls, Γ). Segments longer than 3 residues can be classified as semi-rigid rods based on the narrow range of values seen for the rigidity measure, Γ.