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Yu. M. Yevdokimov¹, S. G. Skuridin¹, V. I. Salyanov¹, L. A. Dadinova², O. N. Kompanets³, E. I. Kats⁴

Author affiliations
¹Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences,
32 Vavilov St., Moscow, 119991, Russia
E-mail: yevdokim@eimb.ru
²Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Sciences,
59 Leninsky pr., Moscow, 119333, Russia
³Institute of Spectroscopy, Russian Academy of Sciences,
5 Fizicheskaya St., Troitsk, Moscow Region, 142190, Russia
⁴Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences,
2 Kosygina St., Moscow, 119334, Russia

Abstract
The answer to a question on the organization of molecules in a cholesteric phase is well enough proved in the case of low molecular weight compounds. However, in the case of double-stranded (ds) molecules of nucleic acids the unequivocal answer to such question is a subject for discussions. In this work an attempt to generalize the well-known literary data on structure of cholesteric phase formed by ds DNA molecules was undertaken. Comparison of the results obtained allows one come out with the assumption of high probability of existence both the "short" range (positional) and the "long" range (orientational) order in an arrangement of ds DNA molecules in a liquid-crystalline phase. Occurrence of the orientational order, i.e. rotation of "quasinematic" layers of ds DNA molecules on a small angle, defines the formation of spatially twisted (cholesteric) structure with characteristic physical and chemical properties.

Keywords: model spiral structures and their cross section, sections of Dinoflagellate chromosomes, slices of DNA cholesteric liquid-crystalline phase