Crumpled Globule Model of the Three-Dimensional Structure of DNA

Abstract

We argue that in order to maintain the biological function of DNA confined inside the cell nucleus, its spatial structure has to be unknotted, of the so-called "crumpled globule" type. The fixation of a particular realization of this non-equilibrium structure by attractive interactions between specific units imposes a connection between the spatial structure of DNA and the statistical distribution of these units along the chain contour. This suggests that both primary sequence and spatial structure of native DNA were formed simultaneously by a self-similar evolution process. The predictions of our model are compared with recent observations of long-range correlations in intron-containing genes and non-transcribed regulatory elements and further experimental tests are proposed.