Related papers: Effects of kink and flexible hinge defects on mech…
Because of the double-helical structure of DNA, in which two strands of complementary nucleotides intertwine around each other, a covalently closed DNA molecule with no interruptions in either strand can be viewed as two interlocked…
The functioning of double-stranded (ds) nucleic acids (NAs) in cellular processes is strongly mediated by their elastic response. These processes involve proteins that interact with dsDNA or dsRNA and distort their structures. The…
The recently proposed compressed backbone theory suggested that the intrinsic curvature in DNA can result from a geometric mismatch between the specific backbone length and optimal base stacking orientations. It predicted that the curvature…
The hybridization and dehybridization of DNA subject to tension is relevant to fundamental genetic processes and to the design of DNA-based mechanobiology assays. While strong tension accelerates DNA melting and decelerates DNA annealing,…
In this work we propose a model for DNA double helix within the tight-binding framework that incorporates the helicity of the molecules. We have studied localization properties of three DNAsequences,the periodic poly(dG)-poly(dC) and…
While the behavior of double stranded DNA at mesoscopic scales is fairly well understood, less is known about its relation to the rich mechanical properties in the base-pair scale, which is crucial, for instance, to understand DNA-protein…
Single molecule studies, at constant force, of the separation of double-stranded DNA into two separated single strands may provide information relevant to the dynamics of DNA replication. At constant applied force, theory predicts that the…
We study the three-dimensional static configurations of nonhomogeneous Kirchhoff filaments with periodically varying Young's modulus. This type of variation may occur in long tandemly repeated sequences of DNA. We analyse the effects of the…
The symmetries of the DNA double helix require a new term in its linear response to stress: the coupling between twist and stretch. Recent experiments with torsionally-constrained single molecules give the first direct measurement of this…
We study numerically the mechanical stability and elasticity properties of duplex DNA molecules within the frame of a network model incorporating microscopic degrees of freedom related with the arrangement of the base pairs. We pay special…
For short DNA molecules in crowded environments, we evaluate macroscopic parameters such as the average end-to-end distance and the twist conformation by tuning the strength of the site specific confinement driven by the crowders. The…
Complementary strands in DNA double helix show temporary fluctuational openings which are essential to biological functions such as transcription and replication of the genetic information. Such large amplitude fluctuations, known as the…
The model of the deformation of DNA macromolecule is developed with the accounting of two types of components of deformation: external and internal. External components describe the bend, twist and stretch of the double helix. The internal…
Chain-like macromolecules in solution, whether biological or synthetic, transform from a spatially extended conformation to a compact one upon change of temperature or solvent qualities. This sharp transition plays a key role in various…
A dynamical model is presented for chiral change in DNA molecules. The model is an extension of the conventional elastic model which incorporates the structure of base pairs and uses a spinor representation for the DNA configuration…
At present, there have been suggested two types of physical mechanism that may facilitate preferential pairing between DNA molecules, with identical or similar base pair texts, without separation of base pairs. One solely relies on base…
We have developed a generalized semi-analytic approach for efficiently computing cyclization and looping $J$ factors of DNA under arbitrary binding constraints. Many biological systems involving DNA-protein interactions impose precise…
The binding of proteins onto DNA contributes to the shaping and packaging of genome as well as to the expression of specific genetic messages. With a view to understanding the interplay between the presence of proteins and the deformation…
By exploring a recent model [Palmeri, J., M. Manghi, and N. Destainville. 2007. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99:088103] where DNA bending elasticity, described by the wormlike chain model, is coupled to base-pair denaturation, we demonstrate that small…
We investigate irreversibility and dissipation in single molecules that cooperatively fold/unfold in a two state manner under the action of mechanical force. We apply path thermodynamics to derive analytical expressions for the average…