DNA migration in topologically structured microchannels with periodic cavities is investigated experimentally and with Brownian dynamics simulations of a simple bead-spring model. The results are in very good agreement with one another. In particular, the experimentally observed migration order of Lambda- and T2-DNA molecules is reproduced by the simulations. The simulation data indicate that the mobility may depend on the chain length in a nonmonotonic way at high electric fields. This is found to be the signature of a nonequilibrium phase transition between two different migration states, a slow one and a fast one, which can also be observed experimentally under appropriate conditions.
@article{arxiv.physics/0406008,
title = {Two-State Migration of DNA in a structured Microchannel},
author = {Martin Streek and Friederike Schmid and Thanh Tu Duong and Dario Anselmetti and Alexandra Ros},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0406008},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Revised edition corresponding to the comments by the referees, submitted to Physical Review E