Blinking statistics of a molecular beacon triggered by end-denaturation of DNA
Soft Condensed Matter
2009-11-11 v1
Abstract
We use a master equation approach based on the Poland-Scheraga free energy for DNA denaturation to investigate the (un)zipping dynamics of a denaturation wedge in a stretch of DNA, that is clamped at one end. In particular, we quantify the blinking dynamics of a fluorophore-quencher pair mounted within the denaturation wedge. We also study the behavioural changes in the presence of proteins, that selectively bind to single-stranded DNA. We show that such a setup could be well-suited as an easy-to-implement nanodevice for sensing environmental conditions in small volumes.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0508492,
title = {Blinking statistics of a molecular beacon triggered by end-denaturation of DNA},
author = {Tobias Ambjoernsson and Ralf Metzler},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0508492},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
14 pages, 5 figures, LaTeX, IOP style. Accepted to J Phys Cond Mat special issue on diffusion