IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v406y2000i6793d10.1038_35018538.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimal shapes of compact strings

Author

Listed:
  • Amos Maritan

    (International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Via Beirut 2–4, 34014 Trieste, Istituto Nazionale per la di Fisica della Materia (INFM) and the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics)

  • Cristian Micheletti

    (International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Via Beirut 2–4, 34014 Trieste, Istituto Nazionale per la di Fisica della Materia (INFM) and the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics)

  • Antonio Trovato

    (International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Via Beirut 2–4, 34014 Trieste, Istituto Nazionale per la di Fisica della Materia (INFM) and the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics)

  • Jayanth R. Banavar

    (104 Davey Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University)

Abstract

Optimal geometrical arrangements, such as the stacking of atoms, are of relevance in diverse disciplines1,2,3,4,5. A classic problem is the determination of the optimal arrangement of spheres in three dimensions in order to achieve the highest packing fraction; only recently has it been proved1,2 that the answer for infinite systems is a face-centred-cubic lattice. This simply stated problem has had a profound impact in many areas3,4,5, ranging from the crystallization and melting of atomic systems, to optimal packing of objects and the sub-division of space. Here we study an analogous problem—that of determining the optimal shapes of closely packed compact strings. This problem is a mathematical idealization of situations commonly encountered in biology, chemistry and physics, involving the optimal structure of folded polymeric chains. We find that, in cases where boundary effects6 are not dominant, helices with a particular pitch-radius ratio are selected. Interestingly, the same geometry is observed in helices in naturally occurring proteins.

Suggested Citation

  • Amos Maritan & Cristian Micheletti & Antonio Trovato & Jayanth R. Banavar, 2000. "Optimal shapes of compact strings," Nature, Nature, vol. 406(6793), pages 287-290, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:406:y:2000:i:6793:d:10.1038_35018538
    DOI: 10.1038/35018538
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/35018538
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/35018538?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ivan Coluzza & Alfonso De Simone & Franca Fraternali & Daan Frenkel, 2008. "Multi-Scale Simulations Provide Supporting Evidence for the Hypothesis of Intramolecular Protein Translocation in GroEL/GroES Complexes," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(2), pages 1-7, February.
    2. Thomas Hamelryck & John T Kent & Anders Krogh, 2006. "Sampling Realistic Protein Conformations Using Local Structural Bias," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 2(9), pages 1-13, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:406:y:2000:i:6793:d:10.1038_35018538. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.