English

Hyper-sound as a means for generating inter-strand defects in a duplex of the DNA

Soft Condensed Matter 2009-08-14 v1

Abstract

The formation of bubble defects of the double stranded DNA is treated according to the Lifshits theory of disordered chains. A molecule of the DNA is modelled on a harmonic lattice with nearest neighbour interaction, elastic constants being randomly distributed. The helicoidal symmetry is accommodated through a chiral field at sites of the lattice. The number of sites varies from 100 to 300, corresponding to DNA segmnets of persistence length. We find the spectra of elastic eigen-modes that mimic inter-strand excitations of the duplex. The frequency distribution shows peaks and valleys at the high-frequency end of the spectra, in accord with the general theory. External excitations may lead to a parametric resonance that can generate localized modes of the lattice. In real life pumping hyper-sound may generate a resonance similar to that studied in this paper, and thus result in excitation of inter-strand modes and possible formation of bubbles, in the duplex of the DNA.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0908.1852,
  title  = {Hyper-sound as a means for generating inter-strand defects in a duplex of the DNA},
  author = {V. Blinov and V. L. Golo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0908.1852},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

16 pages, 13 figures