Untangling DNA
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: Untangling DNA
zbMATH Open document ID: 0712.57002
DOI: 10.1007/BF03024022
author: De Witt L. Sumners
published in: The Mathematical Intelligencer
publication date: 1990-01-01T00:00:00Z
review text: ``Knot theory - a new kind of applicable mathematics!'' This starts an excellent survey article which provides the reader with a glimpse of a topological approach to enzymology, the geometry of DNA, site-specific recombination, tangles and 4-plats, Tn3 resolvase, and Phage \(\lambda\) Integrase. Resolvase recombinations lead to tangle equations and it is shown how the Cyclic Surgery Theorem of Culler, Gordon, Luecke-Shalen and the Determination of Knots by their Complements Theorem of Gordon-Luecke can be used to solve certain such tangle equations for the tangle factors. The author rightfully concludes the article with the hope that he has provided the reader with some reason to question a statement of \textit{Cipra} [Science 241, 1291-1292 (1988)]: ``Gordon and Luecke's solution to Tietze's 80 year-old problem has no immediate practical or even theoretical applications.''
reviewed by: Wolfgang Heil
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 57M25
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 92E10
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 92C40
zbMATH DE Number: 4171954
zbMATH Keywords: enzymology
zbMATH Keywords: geometry of DNA
zbMATH Keywords: site-specific recombination
zbMATH Keywords: tangles
zbMATH Keywords: 4- plats
zbMATH Keywords: Tn3 resolvase
zbMATH Keywords: Phage \(\lambda \) Integrase
zbMATH Keywords: tangle equations
zbMATH Keywords: Determination of Knots by their Complements
MaRDI profile type: Publication
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full work available at URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03024022
OpenAlex ID: W4256439663
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4171954