Related papers: A molecule that detects the length of DNA by using…
The mechanical properties of molecules are today captured by single molecule manipulation experiments, so that polymer features are tested at a nanometric scale. Yet devising mathematical models to get further insight beyond the commonly…
Polymerization of RNA from a template DNA is carried out by a molecular machine called RNA polymerase (RNAP). It also uses the template as a track on which it moves as a motor utilizing chemical energy input. The time it spends at each…
Helical molecules change their twist number under the effect of a mechanical load. We study the twist-stretch relation for a set of short DNA molecules modeled by a mesoscopic Hamiltonian. Finite temperature path integral techniques are…
Tethered particle experiments use light microscopy to measure the position of a micrometer-sized bead tethered to a microscope slide via a ~micrometer length polymer, in order to infer the behavior of the invisible polymer. Currently, this…
We predict various detectable mechanical responses to the presence of local DNA defects which are defined as short DNA segments exhibiting mechanical properties obviously different from the 50 nm persistence length based semiflexible…
Conformational change of a DNA molecule is frequently observed in multiple biological processes and has been modelled using a chain of strongly coupled oscillators with a nonlinear bistable potential. While the mechanism and properties of…
The formation of DNA loops by proteins and protein complexes is ubiquitous to many fundamental cellular processes, including transcription, recombination, and replication. Here we review recent advances in understanding the properties of…
The formation of DNA loops by proteins and protein complexes that bind at distal DNA sites plays a central role in many cellular processes, such as transcription, recombination, and replication. Here we review the basic thermodynamic…
Complementary strands in DNA double helix show temporary fluctuational openings which are essential to biological functions such as transcription and replication of the genetic information. Such large amplitude fluctuations, known as the…
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…
A genetic switch may be realised by a certain operator sector on the DNA strand from which either genetic code, to the left or to the right of this operator sector, can be transcribed and the corresponding information processed. This switch…
We present a statistical-mechanical analysis of the positioning of nucleosomes along one of the chromosomes of yeast DNA as a function of the strength of the binding potential and of the chemical potential of the nucleosomes. We find a…
Biopolymer length regulation is a complex process that involves a large number of subprocesses acting simultaneously across multiple spatial and temporal scales. An illustrative example important for genomic stability is the length…
A promising new method for measuring intramolecular distances in solution uses small-angle X-ray scattering interference between gold nanocrystal labels (Mathew-Fenn et al, Science, 322, 446 (2008)). When applied to double stranded DNA, it…
Many biological processes involve one dimensional diffusion over a correlated inhomogeneous energy landscape with a correlation length $\xi_c$. Typical examples are specific protein target location on DNA, nucleosome repositioning, or DNA…
For short DNA molecules in crowded environments, we evaluate macroscopic parameters such as the average end-to-end distance and the twist conformation by tuning the strength of the site specific confinement driven by the crowders. The…
The scaling properties of DNA knots of different complexities were studied by atomic force microscope. Following two different protocols DNA knots are adsorbed onto a mica surface in regimes of (i) strong binding, that induces a kinetic…
The complex mechanisms governing charge migration in DNA oligomers reflect the rich structural and electronic properties of the molecule of life. Controlling the mechanical stability of DNA nanowires in charge transport experiments is a…
DNA denaturation has long been a subject of intense study due to its relationship to DNA transcription and its fundamental importance as a nonlinear, structural transition. Many aspects of this phenomenon, however, remain poorly understood.…
This paper introduces the use of cable dynamics models as a means to explore the mechanics of DNA on long-length scales. It is on these length scales that DNA forms twisted and curved three-dimensional shapes known as supercoils and loops.…