Properties of ideal composite knots

Vsevolod Katritch, Wilma K. Olson, Piotr Pieranski, Jacques Dubochet and Andrzej Stasiak ()
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Vsevolod Katritch: Rutgers the State University of New Jersey
Wilma K. Olson: Rutgers the State University of New Jersey
Piotr Pieranski: †Institute of Physics, Poznan University of Technology, 60-965 Poznan and Institute of Molecular Physics
Jacques Dubochet: ‡Laboratoire d'Analyse Ultrastructurale, Bâtiment de Biologie, Université de Lausanne
Andrzej Stasiak: ‡Laboratoire d'Analyse Ultrastructurale, Bâtiment de Biologie, Université de Lausanne

Nature, 1997, vol. 388, issue 6638, 148-151

Abstract: Abstract The shortest tube of constant diameter that can form a given knot represents the ‘ideal’ form of the knot1,2. Ideal knots provide an irreducible representation of the knot, and they have some intriguing mathematical and physical features, including a direct correspondence with the time-averaged shapes of knotted DNA molecules in solution1,2. Here we describe the properties of ideal forms of composite knots — knots obtained by the sequential tying of two or more independent knots (called factor knots) on the same string. We find that the writhe (related to the handedness of crossing points) of composite knots is the sum of that of the ideal forms of the factor knots. By comparing ideal composite knots with simulated configurations of knotted, thermally fluctuating DNA, we conclude that the additivity of writhe applies also to randomly distorted configurations of composite knots and their corresponding factor knots. We show that composite knots with several factor knots may possess distinct structural isomers that can be interconverted only by loosening the knot.

Date: 1997
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DOI: 10.1038/40582

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