Related papers: Ion-mediated RNA structural collapse: effect of sp…
We investigate by Molecular-Dynamics simulations the fast mobility - the rattling amplitude of the particles temporarily trapped by the cage of the neighbors - in mildly supercooled states of dense molecular (linear trimers) and atomic…
Conformational dynamics is crucial for ribonucleic acid (RNA) function. Techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance, cryo-electron microscopy, small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering, chemical probing, single-molecule F\"orster resonance…
The effect of polyvalent molecular cations, such as spermine, on the condensation of DNA into very well-defined toroidal shapes have been well studied and understood. However, a great effort has been made trying to obtain similar condensed…
We study a dense colloidal suspension confined between two quasiparallel glass plates as a model system for a supercooled liquid in confined geometries. We directly observe the three-dimensional Brownian motion of the colloidal particles…
Nucleic acids are negatively charged macromolecules and their structure properties are strongly coupled to metal ions in solutions. In this paper, the salt effects on the flexibility of single stranded (ss) nucleic acid chain ranging from…
A full understanding of RNA-mediated biology would require the knowledge of three-dimensional (3D) structures, structural flexibility and stability of RNAs. To predict RNA 3D structures and stability, we have previously proposed a…
Atomically detailed simulations of RNA folding have proven very challenging in view of the difficulties of developing realistic force fields and the intrinsic computational complexity of sampling rare conformational transitions. To tackle…
A charged Yukawa liquid confined in a slit nanopore is studied in order to understand excluded volume effects in the interaction force between the pore walls. A previously developed self-consistent scheme (S. Buyukdagli el al., J. Stat.…
Mg-MOF-74 is a metal-organic framework (MOF) that exhibits a high capacity for CO$_2$ adsorption. Given the importance of CO$_2$ confinement in Mg-MOF-74 for capture and storage applications, it is important to understand the structural and…
The computer-aided folding of biomolecules, particularly RNAs, is one of the most difficult challenges in computational structural biology. RNA tetraloops are fundamental RNA motifs playing key roles in RNA folding and RNA-RNA and…
RNA duplex stability depends strongly on ionic conditions, and inside cells RNAs are exposed to both monovalent and multivalent ions. Despite recent advances, we do not have general methods to quantitatively account for the effects of…
Non-coding RNA sequences play a great role in controlling a number of cellular functions, thus raising the need to understand their complex conformational dynamics in quantitative detail. In this perspective, we first show that single…
Lithium intercalation into graphite is the foundation for the lithium-ion battery, and the thermodynamics of the lithiation of graphitic electrodes have been heavily investigated. Intercalated lithium in bulk graphite undergoes structural…
Spatial confinement in nanoporous media affects the structure, thermodynamics and mobility of molecular soft matter often markedly. This article reviews thermodynamic equilibrium phenomena, such as physisorption, capillary condensation,…
We study numerically the influence of confinement on the solid fraction and on the structure of three-dimensional random close packed (RCP) granular materials subject to gravity. The effects of grain shape (spherical or polyhedral),…
Due to the hierarchical organization of RNA structures and their pivotal roles in fulfilling RNA functions, the formation of RNA secondary structure critically influences many biological processes and has thus been a crucial research topic.…
RNA interference (RNAi) is a fundamental cellular process that inhibits gene expression through cleavage and destruction of target mRNA. It is responsible for a number of important intracellular functions, from being the first line of…
The kinetic folding of RNA sequences into secondary structures is modeled as a complex adaptive system, the components of which are possible RNA structural rearrangements (SRs) and their associated bases and base pairs. RNA bases and base…
We extend recent methods for parametric sequence alignment to the parameter space for scoring RNA folds. This involves the construction of an RNA polytope. A vertex of this polytope corresponds to RNA secondary structures with common…
We describe quantitatively a RNA molecule under the influence of an external force exerted at its two ends as in a typical single-molecule experiment. Our calculation incorporates the interactions between nucleotides by using the…