Related papers: Force-clamp analysis techniques reveal stretched e…
The fracture strength distribution of materials is often described in terms of the Weibull law which can be derived by using extreme value statistics if elastic interactions are ignored. Here, we consider explicitly the interplay between…
The conformational dynamics of a single protein molecule in a shear flow is investigated using Brownian dynamics simulations. A structure-based coarse grained model of a protein is used. We consider two proteins, ubiquitin and integrin, and…
With the help of force spectroscopy, several analytical theories aim at estimating the rate coefficient of folding for various proteins. Nevertheless, a chief bottleneck lies in the fact that there is still no perfect consensus on how does…
Biological forces govern essential cellular and molecular processes in all living organisms. Many cellular forces, e.g. those generated in cyclic conformational changes of biological machines, have repetitive components. However, little is…
A statistical mechanical description of flexible and semi-flexible polymer chains in a poor solvent is developed in the constant force and constant distance ensembles. We predict the existence of many intermediate states at low temperatures…
We probe the dynamic strength of multiple biotin-streptavidin adhesion bonds under linear loading using the biomembrane force probe setup for dynamic force spectroscopy. Measured rupture force histograms are compared to results from a…
Analysis of bond rupture data from single-molecule force spectroscopy experiments commonly relies on the strong assumption that the bond dissociation process is irreversible. However, with increased spatiotemporal resolution of instruments…
We present a detailed analysis of two-state trajectories obtained from force-clamp spectroscopy (FCS) of reversibly bonded systems. FCS offers the unique possibility to vary the equilibrium constant in two-state kinetics, for instance the…
The structural dynamics of a biopolymer is governed by a process of diffusion through its conformational energy landscape. In pulling experiments using optical tweezers, features of the energy landscape can be extracted from the probability…
In the current AFM experiments the distribution of unfolding times, P(t), is measured by applying a constant stretching force f_s from which the apparent unfolding rate is obtained. To describe the complexity of the underlying energy…
The recently proposed fluctuation relation in unfolding forces [Phys. Rev. E ${\bf 84}$, $060101$(R) $(2011)$] is re-examined taking into account the explicit time dependence of the force distribution. The stretching of a tethered Rouse…
A new theoretical survey of proteins' resistance to constant speed stretching is performed for a set of 17 134 proteins as described by a structure-based model. The proteins selected have no gaps in their structure determination and consist…
Single-molecule force spectroscopy has opened a new field of research in molecular biophysics and biochemistry. Pulling experiments on individual proteins permit us to monitor conformational transitions with high temporal resolution and…
We investigate the rate-length scaling law of protein folding, a key undetermined scaling law in the analytical theory of protein folding. We demonstrate that chain length is a dominant factor determining folding times, and that the…
We study the rescaled probability distribution of the critical depinning force of an elastic system in a random medium. We put in evidence the underlying connection between the critical properties of the depinning transition and the extreme…
Recently experiments showed that some biological noncovalent bonds increase their lifetimes when they are stretched by an external force, and their lifetimes will decrease when the force increases further. Several specific quantitative…
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…
Cooperativity is a hallmark of proteins, many of which show a modular architecture comprising discrete structural domains. Detecting and describing dynamic couplings between structural regions is difficult in view of the many-body nature of…
Mechanical stretching of secondary structures is studied through molecular dynamics simulations of a Go-like model. Force vs. displacement curves are studied as a function of the stiffness and velocity of the pulling device. The succession…
Exact solutions for the elastic and thermodynamic properties for the wormlike chain model are elaborated in terms of Mathieu functions. The smearing of the classical Euler buckling instability for clamped polymers is analyzed for the…