Mechanical properties of DNA replication

Abstract

Central to the function of cellular life is the reading, storage, and replication of DNA. Due to the helical structure of DNA, a complicated topological braiding of new strands follows the duplication of the old strands. Even though this was discovered over 60 years ago, the nature of the physical barriers this presents have only recently been uncovered. In this article we construct a simple idealized model of DNA replication using only the most basic mathematical and mechanical elements needed. The resulting model assembles the relevant behaviors of DNA braiding, DNA supercoiling, topoisomerase action, and transcription into one framework. This may serve as a foundation for future work as well as to shed light on recently observed replication/replication and replication/transcription conflicts.