During the last two decades, the common school of thought has split into two, so that the problem of the origin of life is tackled in the framework of either the 'replication first' paradigm or the 'metabolism first' scenario. The first paradigm suggests that the life started from the spontaneous emergence of the first, supposedly RNA-based 'replicators' and considers in much detail their furth...

Plants gums are complex mixtures of different polysaccharides with a variety of biological activities and pharmaceutical applications. Few studies have focused on physicochemical and biological properties of gums obtained from different plants. This study was designed to determine potential pharmaceutical and pharmacological values of the gum exudates and its isolated biopolymers obtained from ...

It is a recognised phenomenon that mixtures of biopolymers in aqueous solution may result in the formation of a two-phase system. Increasingly biopolymers are being used together in food production. Therefore i t is important to understand the conditions and concentration limits that result in phase separation. Gelatin and pectin are important food polymers having the functional properties of g...

Elasticity of Semiflexible Biopolymer Networks F.C. MacKintosh, ' J. Kas, ' and P. A. Janmey' 'Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-4030 2Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michi an 4M09-1120 3Division of Experimental Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital Harv d M d' I S h i, B ar e ica c oo, oston, Massachusetts 02...

The effect of a finite torque on semiflexible polymers in a confined environment is investigated. It is shown how a new length scale appears in the strongly confined limit. The influence of a torque on the extension of biopolymers in nanochannels is also touched upon and it is argued that the presence of a torque has a strong influence on the dimensions of nanochannels needed to prevent hairpins.

Cells make use of semiflexible biopolymers such as actin or intermediate filaments to control their local viscoelastic response by dynamically adjusting the concentration and type of cross-linking molecules. The microstructure of the resulting networks mainly determines their mechanical properties. It remains an important challenge to relate structural transitions to both the molecular properti...