Related papers: Supercoil formation in DNA denaturation
Single molecule experiments on B-DNA stretching have revealed one or two structural transitions, when increasing the external force. They are characterized by a sudden increase of DNA contour length and a decrease of the bending rigidity.…
A double stranded DNA molecule under the stress of a pulling force acting on the strand terminals exhibits a partially denatured structure or can be completely unzipped depending the magnitude of the pulling force. A scaling argument for…
As sections of a strand duplexed DNA denature when exposed to high temperature, the excess linking number is taken up by the undenatured portions of the molecule. The mechanical energy that arises because of the overwinding of the…
We study numerically a disordered version of the model for DNA denaturation transition (DSAW-DNA) consisting of two interacting SAWs in 3d, which undergoes a first order transition in the homogeneous case. The two possible values eAT and…
We present a precise equivalence of the Lifson-Poland-Scheraga model with wetting models. Making use of a representation of the former model in terms of random matrices, we obtain, in the limit of weak disorder, a mean--field approximation,…
We study numerically the effect of sequence heterogeneity on the thermodynamic properties of a Poland-Scheraga model for DNA denaturation taking into account self-avoidance, i.e. with exponent c_p=2.15 for the loop length probability…
We present a self-contained theory for the mechanical response of DNA in single molecule experiments. Our model is based on a 1D continuum description of the DNA molecule and accounts both for its elasticity and for DNA-DNA electrostatic…
Transcription is the first step of gene expression, in which a particular segment of DNA is copied to RNA by the enzyme RNA polymerase (RNAP). Despite many details of the complex interactions between DNA and RNA synthesis disclosed…
We study the dynamics of denaturation bubbles in double-stranded DNA on the basis of the Poland-Scheraga model. We show that long time distributions for the survival of DNA bubbles and the size autocorrelation function can be derived from…
Twisting DNA under a constant applied force reveals a thermally activated transition into a state with a supercoiled structure known as a plectoneme. Using transition state theory, we predict the rate of this plectoneme nucleation to be of…
The thermally induced denaturation of DNA in the presence of attractive solid surface is studied. The two strands of DNA are modeled via two coupled flexible chains without volume interactions. If the two strands are adsorbed on the…
DNA supercoiling plays an important role in a variety of cellular processes. The torsional stress related with supercoiling may be also involved in gene regulation through the local structure and dynamics of the double helix. To check this…
We study a model for the denaturation transition of DNA in which the molecules are considered as composed of a sequence of alternating bound segments and denaturated loops. We take into account the excluded-volume interactions between…
We investigate the kinetics of the DNA melting transition using modified versions of the Peyrard-Dauxois-Bishop and Poland-Scheraga models that include long and short range interactions. Using Brownian dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations,…
A statistical model of homopolymer DNA, coupling internal base pair states (unbroken or broken) and external thermal chain fluctuations, is exactly solved using transfer kernel techniques. The dependence on temperature and DNA length of the…
There is a long-standing experimental observation that the melting of topologically constrained DNA, such as circular-closed plasmids, is less abrupt than that of linear molecules. This finding points to an intriguing role of topology in…
We develop further a statistical model coupling denaturation and chain conformations in DNA (Palmeri J, Manghi M and Destainville N 2007 Phys. Rev. Lett. 99 088103). Our Discrete Helical Wormlike Chain model takes explicitly into account…
Metropolis Monte Carlo simulation is used to investigate the elasticity of torsionally stressed double-stranded DNA, in which twist and supercoiling are incorporated as a natural result of base-stacking interaction and backbone bending…
We examine the behavior of a model which describes the melting of double-stranded DNA chains. The model, with displacement-dependent stiffness constants and a Morse on-site potential, is analyzed numerically; depending on the stiffness…
We show that a mesoscale model, with a minimal number of parameters, can well describe the thermomechanical and mechanochemical behavior of homogeneous DNA at thermal equilibrium under tension and torque. We predict critical temperatures…