Mean-field theory of planar absorption of RNA molecules

ORAL

Abstract

Interaction between the viral RNA and the protective protein capsid plays a very important role in the cell infection and self-assembly process of a virus. To better understand this interaction, we study a similar problem of absorption of RNA on an attractive wall. It is known that the secondary structure of a folded RNA molecules without pseudo-knots has the same topology as that of a branched polymer. We use a mean-field theory for branched polymers to analytically calculate the RNA concentration profile. The results are compared to known exact scaling calculations and computer simulations.

*Supported by NSF under DMR Grant 0404507 and CHE 0400363

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Authors

  • Toan Nguyen

    • Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles

  • Robijn Bruinsma

    • Deparment of Physics, UCLA
    • Department of Physics, UCLA
    • UCLA
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles
    • Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles

  • William Gelbart

    • Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles