Peano Curve Model of DNA Folding

Peano Curve Model of DNA Folding

Submitted by Miriam Huntley, Jian Li and Erez Lieberman Aiden of the Laboratory at Large in the Broad Institute

Broad Institute

Miriam Huntley, Jian Li and Erez Lieberman Aiden
Laboratory at Large, Broad Institute
Computer Recursion Drawing

"This image shows the two dimensional Peano curve, here constructed using a simple recursion formula iterated three (left) or four (right) times.  Fractal curves such as this one are of interest to biologists because they can help describe how DNA folds up inside a nucleus.  Our group is interested in understanding how DNA folds up inside the nucleus. Understanding how quantities such as the contact probability, radius of gyration, and surface area scale with the length of these curves is an important step in this endeavor."