Related papers: Physics of base-pairing dynamics in DNA
We propose a dynamical model depicting the interactions between DNA and a specific binding protein involving long range transmissions. The dynamics rely on the coupling between Hydrogen bonds formed between DNA and protein and between the…
The sequence-dependent structural variability and conformational dynamics of DNA play pivotal roles in many biological milieus, such as in the site-specific binding of transcription factors to target regulatory elements. To better…
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…
We study a class of micromanipulation experiments, exemplified by the pulling apart of the two strands of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). When the pulling force is increased to a critical value, an ``unzipping'' transition occurs. For random…
Following Poland and Scheraga, we consider a simplified model for the denaturation transition of DNA. The two strands are modeled as interacting polymer chains. The attractive interactions, which mimic the pairing between the four bases,…
We study sequence dependent complexation between oligonucleotides (single strand DNA) and various generation ethylene diamine (EDA) cored poly amido amide (PAMAM) dendrimers through atomistic molecular dynamics simulations accompanied by…
The strong bending of polymers is poorly understood. We propose a general quantitative framework of polymer bending that includes both the weak and strong bending regimes on the same footing, based on a single general physical principle. As…
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…
While the thermodynamics of DNA hybridization is well understood, much less is known about the kinetics of this classic system. Filling this gap in our understanding has new urgency because DNA nanotechnology often depends critically on…
This work addresses the question of the interplay of DNA demixing and supercoiling in bacterial cells. Demixing of DNA from other globular macromolecules results from the overall repulsion between all components of the system and leads to…
This paper presents a numerical study of the dynamics of DNA double helix breakage under the influence of external forces using the Peyrard-Bishop-Dauxois (PBD) model. The PBD model represents DNA as a chain of nonlinearly coupled…
Accurate knowledge of the thermodynamic properties of nucleic acids is crucial to predicting their structure and stability. To date most measurements of base-pair free energies in DNA are obtained in thermal denaturation experiments, which…
A theory of the unzipping of double-stranded (ds) DNA is presented, and is compared to recent micromanipulation experiments. It is shown that the interactions which stabilize the double helix and the elastic rigidity of single strands (ss)…
It is well known that the structural deformations (stressed states) of DNA molecule play a crucial role in its biological functions including gene expression. For instance, looping in DNA (often mediated by protein binding) is a crucial…
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 local opening of DNA is an intriguing phenomenon from a statistical physics point of view, but is also essential for its biological function. For instance, the transcription and replication of our genetic code can not take place without…
A mesoscopic model for heterogeneous DNA denaturation is developed in the framework of the path integral formalism. The base pair stretchings are treated as one-dimensional, time dependent paths contributing to the partition function. 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…
Cooperativity plays an important role in the action of proteins bound to DNA. A simple, mechanical mechanism for cooperativity, in the form of a tension-mediated interaction between proteins bound to DNA at two different locations is…
The closure dynamics of a pre-equilibrated DNA denaturation bubble is studied using both Brownian dynamics simulations and an analytical approach. The numerical model consists of two semi-flexible interacting single strands (ssDNA) and a…