Mathematics Colloquia and Seminars

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Trypanosomatida parasites, such as trypanosoma and lishmania, are the cause of deadly diseases in many third world countries. A distinctive feature of these organisms is the three dimensional organization of their mitochondrial DNA into maxi and minicircles. In some of these organisms minicircles are confined into a small disk (called the kinetoplast disk) and are topologically linked, forming a gigantic linked network. In this talk, we demonstrate, by using a simple mathematical model, that certain characteristics of this network can be readily explained by how densely these minicircles are packed inside the kinetoplast disk. We also present evidence to support that changing the parameters in our model to make it more realistic is not likely to affect this result.

Please let Mariel (mariel@math.ucdavis.edu) know if you would like to meet with the speaker and/or join the dinner.