Related papers: Pulling short DNA molecules having defects on diff…
DNA hybridization is a fundamental reaction with wide-ranging applications in biotechnology. The nearest-neighbor (NN) model provides the most reliable description of the energetics of duplex formation. Most DNA thermodynamics studies have…
DNA deformations play crucial roles in many biological processes and material applications. During DNA deformation, DNA structural parameters often exhibit non-trivial and counterintuitive couplings, such as the twist-stretch and…
We investigate the denaturation dynamics of nucleic acids through extensive molecular dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained RNA hairpin model. In apparent contradiction with Arrhenius' law, our findings reveal that the denaturation time…
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…
Motivated by recent experiments we have studied the optical conductivity of DNA in its natural environment containing water molecules and counter ions. Our density functional theory calculations (using SIESTA) for four base pair B-DNA with…
When multivalent salts are added to dilute DNA solution, the DNA chains condense into bundles of a well-defined size. We explore two physical problems motivated by this phenomenon: the origin of the attractive interactions between the…
The dynamics of a loop in DNA molecules at the denaturation transition is studied by scaling arguments and numerical simulations. The autocorrelation function of the state of complementary bases (either closed or open) is calculated. The…
The effective DNA-DNA interaction force is calculated by computer simulations with explicit tetravalent counterions and monovalent salt. For overcharged DNA molecules, the interaction force shows a double-minimum structure. The positions…
The thermodynamical stability of DNA minicircles is investigated by means of path integral techniques. Hydrogen bonds between base pairs on complementary strands can be broken by thermal fluctuations and temporary fluctuational openings…
The present work is devoted to the study of the thermostability of native DNA during binding to TiO$_{2}$ nanoparticles (NPs) at various concentrations under conditions close to physiological (0.1 M Na $^+$, pH 7) using thermal denaturation…
The propensity of short DNA sequences to convert to the circular form is studied by a mesoscopic Hamiltonian method which incorporates both the bending of the molecule axis and the intrinsic twist of the DNA strands. The base pair…
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…
The interplay between global constraints and local material properties of chain molecules is a subject of emerging interest. Studies of molecules that are intrinsically chiral, such as double-stranded DNA, is one example. Their properties…
We study the effect of the composition of the genetic sequence on the melting temperature of double stranded DNA, using some simple analytically solvable models proposed in the framework of the wetting problem. We review previous work on…
The accurate knowledge of the elastic properties of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) is key to characterize the thermodynamics of molecular reactions that are studied by force spectroscopy methods where DNA is mechanically unfolded. Examples…
Multistep denaturation in a short circular DNA molecule is analyzed by a mesoscopic Hamiltonian model which accounts for the helicoidal geometry. Computation of melting profiles by the path integral method suggests that stacking…
We use a statistical mechanical model to study nonthermal denaturation of DNA in the presence of protein-mediated loops. We find that looping proteins which randomly link DNA bases located at a distance along the chain could cause a…
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…
We review statistical-mechanical theories of single-molecule micromanipulation experiments on nucleic acids. First, models for describing polymer elasticity are introduced. We then review how these models are used to interpret…
Cyclization of DNA with sticky ends is commonly used to construct DNA minicircles and to measure DNA bendability. The cyclization probability of short DNA (< 150 bp) has a strong length dependence, but how it depends on the rotational…