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Using knot theory to understand DNA structure and function.
Colloquium| Speaker: | David Letscher, UCSD |
| Location: | 693 Kerr |
| Start time: | Mon, May 10 1999, 4:10PM |
During the life span of bacterial its DNA can form knots and links. In particular, during replication the duplicate copy of the DNA strand links itself to the original. A model will be given for how topoisomerases can recognize knotting or linking from purely local information and through a series of crossing changes produce the unknot or unlink. Studying these biological processes has also led to some conjectures in knot theory that will be discussed.