Effect of disorder on biopolymers

Combining polymer theory with a replica approach, it was show in an article recently published on Phys. Rev. E that the binding probability of monomers in a random heteropolymer displays a sharp cutoff at a specific separation distance. This fact could contribute to the emergence of small-size domains in large biopolymers, such as the quaternary structure of proteins, or topological associating domains in chromatin.

G. Tiana, PHYSICAL REVIEW E 92, 010702(R) (2015)