Related papers: Physics of base-pairing dynamics in DNA
We recently proposed a dynamical mesoscopic model for DNA, which is based, like statistical ones, on site-dependent finite stacking and pairing enthalpies. In the present article, we first describe how the parameters of this model are…
The radiation-induced damages in bio-molecules are ubiquitous processes in radiotherapy, radio-biology and critical to space-projects. In this study we present a precise quantification of the fragmentation mechanisms of deoxyribonucleic…
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…
We analyse base-pair breathing in a DNA sequence of 12 base-pairs with a defective base at its centre. We use both all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and a system of stochastic differential equations (SDE). In both cases, Fourier…
We investigate diffusion-limited reactions between a diffusing particle and a target site on a semiflexible polymer, a key factor determining the kinetics of DNA-protein binding and polymerization of cytoskeletal filaments. Our theory…
Analysis of single-molecule micromanipulation experiments of DNA unzipping process shows some features of the force-distance curve, namely two consequent plateaus in the area of ${\sim}12-14pN$ dependent on nucleotide sequence structure, as…
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…
DNA regulation and repair processes require direct interactions between proteins and DNA at specific sites. Local fluctuations of the sugar-phosphate backbones and bases of DNA (a form of DNA "breathing") play a central role in such…
We present an extensive theoretical investigation of the mechanical unzipping of double-stranded DNA under the influence of an applied force. In the limit of long polymers, there is a thermodynamic unzipping transition at a critical force…
The flexibility of short DNA chains is investigated via computation of the average correlation function between dimers which defines the persistence length. Path integration techniques have been applied to confine the phase space available…
In the course of various biological processes, specific DNA-binding proteins must find a particular target sequence/protein or a damaged site on the DNA efficiently. DNA-binding proteins perform this task based on diffusion. Yet,…
We present a dynamical model of DNA mechanical unzipping under the action of a force. The model includes the motion of the fork in the sequence-dependent landscape, the trap(s) acting on the bead(s), and the polymeric components of the…
The strength of the spin-orbit interaction relevant to transport in a low dimensional structure depends critically on the relative geometrical arrangement of current carrying orbitals. Recent tight-binding orbital models for spin transport…
The statistical physics of homogeneous DNA is investigated by the imaginary time path integral formalism. The base pair stretchings are described by an ensemble of paths selected through a macroscopic constraint, the fulfillement of the…
A DNA-protein complex modelled by a semiflexible chain and an attractive spherical core is studied in the situation when an external stretching force is acting on one end monomer of the chain while the other end monomer is kept fixed in…
Nucleic acids are highly deformable helical molecules constantly stretched, twisted and bent in their biological functioning. Single molecule experiments have shown that double stranded (ds)-RNA and standard ds-DNA have opposite…
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…
The computational modelling of DNA is becoming crucial in light of new advances in DNA nanotechnology, single-molecule experiments and in vivo DNA tampering. Here we present a mesoscopic model for double stranded DNA (dsDNA) at the single…
A unified model is constructed to study the recently observed DNA entropic elasticity, cooperative extensibility, and supercoiling property. With the introduction of a new structural parameter (the folding angle $\phi$), bending…
Complementary DNA strands in solution reliably hybridize to form stable duplexes. We study the kinetics of the hybridization process and the mechanisms by which two initially isolated strands come together to form a stable double helix. We…