Related papers: Rigidity of Melting DNA
Intracellular positive ions neutralise negative charges on the phosphates of a DNA strand conferring greater strength on the hydrogen bonds that connect complementary strands into a double helix and so confer enhanced stability. Beyond a…
Literature data on the properties of DNA open states are reviewed and analyzed. These states are formed as a result of strong DNA fluctuations and have a great impact on a number of biochemical processes; among them is charge transfer in…
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…
The simplest model of DNA mechanics describes the double helix as a continuous rod with twist and bend elasticity. Recent work has discussed the relevance of a little-studied coupling $G$ between twisting and bending, known to arise from…
We consider an elastic rod model for twisted DNA in the plectonemic regime. The molecule is treated as an impenetrable tube with an effective, adjustable radius. The model is solved analytically and we derive formulas for the contact…
DNA is a flexible molecule, but the degree of its flexibility is subject to debate. The commonly-accepted persistence length of $l_p \approx 500\,$\AA\ is inconsistent with recent studies on short-chain DNA that show much greater…
The base pair fluctuations and helix untwisting are examined for a circular molecule. A realistic mesoscopic model including twisting degrees of freedom and bending of the molecular axis is proposed. The computational method, based on path…
The presence of a thermodynamic phase of a three-stranded DNA, namely, a mixed phase of bubbles of two bound strands and a single one, is established for large dimensions ($d\geq 5$) by using exact real space renormalization group (RG)…
Very thin elastic sheets, even at zero temperature, exhibit nonlinear elastic response by virtue of their dominant bending modes. Their behavior is even richer at finite temperature. Here we use molecular dynamics (MD) to study the…
The macroscopic curvature of double helical DNA induced by regularly repeated adenine tracts is well-known but still puzzling. Its physical origin remains controversial even though it is perhaps the best-documented sequence modulation of…
We explore in detail the structural, mechanical and thermodynamic properties of a coarse-grained model of DNA similar to that introduced in Thomas E. Ouldridge, Ard A. Louis, Jonathan P.K. Doye, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104 178101 (2010). Effective…
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…
We present a theoretical study of single-stranded DNA under stretching. Within the proposed framework, the effects of basepairing on the mechanical response of the molecule can be studied in combination with an arbitrary underlying model of…
DNA is an astonishing material that can be used as a molecular building block to construct periodic arrays and devices with nanoscale accuracy and precision. Here, we present simple bead-spring model of DNA nanostars having three, four and…
Advances in DNA nanotechnology have stimulated the search for simple motifs that can be used to control the properties of DNA nanostructures. One such motif, which has been used extensively in structures such as polyhedral cages,…
Gel electrophoresis allows to separate knotted DNA (nicked circular) of equal length according to the knot type. At low electric fields, complex knots being more compact, drift faster than simpler knots. Recent experiments have shown that…
The approach for the description of the DNA conformational transformations on the mesoscopic scales in the frame of the double helix is presented. Due to consideration of the joint motions of DNA structural elements along the conformational…
Chromatin is a complex of DNA and specific proteins forming an intermediary level of organization of eukaryotic genomes, between double-stranded DNA and chromosome. Within a generic modeling of the chromatin assembly, we investigate the…
Simple expressions for the bending and the base-stacking energy of double-stranded semiflexible biopolymers (such as DNA and actin) are derived. The distribution of the folding angle between the two strands is obtained by solving a…
The quite recent technological rise in molecular biology allowed single molecule manipulation experiments, where molecule stretching plays a primary role. In order to understand the experimental data, it is felt the urge of some physical…