Related papers: Extension, Torque and Supercoiling in Single, Stre…
Recent works on localized charge transport along DNA, based on a three--dimensional, tight--binding model (Eur. Phys. J. B 30:211, 2002; Phys. D 180:256, 2003), suggest that charge transport is mediated by the coupling of the radial and…
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…
Charge migration along DNA molecules has attracted scientific interest for over half a century. Reports on possible high rates of charge transfer between donor and acceptor through the DNA, obtained in the last decade from solution…
We studied the unzipping kinetics of single molecules of double-stranded DNA by pulling one of their two strands through a narrow protein pore. PCR analysis yielded the first direct proof of DNA unzipping in such a system. The time to unzip…
DNA and other biopolymers differ from classical polymers due to their torsional stiffness. This property changes the statistical character of their conformations under tension from a classical random walk to a problem we call the `torsional…
The binding of proteins onto DNA contributes to the shaping and packaging of genome as well as to the expression of specific genetic messages. With a view to understanding the interplay between the presence of proteins and the deformation…
Studies of circular DNA confined to nanofluidic channels are relevant both from a fundamental polymer-physics perspective and due to the importance of circular DNA molecules in vivo. We here observe the unfolding of DNA from the circular to…
We present a statistical mechanics analysis of the finite-size elasticity of biopolymers, consisting of domains which can exhibit transitions between more than one stable state at large applied force. The constant-force (Gibbs) and…
We present a method of detecting sequence defects by supercoiling DNA with magnetic tweezers. The method is sensitive to a single mismatched base pair in a DNA sequence of several thousand base pairs. We systematically compare DNA molecules…
DNA torsion dynamics is essential in the transcription process; a simple model for it, in reasonable agreement with experimental observations, has been proposed by Yakushevich (Y) and developed by several authors; in this, the DNA subunits…
DNA amplification is the process of replication of a specified DNA sequence \emph{in vitro} through time-dependent manipulation of its external environment. A theoretical framework for determination of the optimal dynamic operating…
We study the elastic response of a worm-like polymer chain with reversible kink-like structural defects. This is a generic model for (a) the double-stranded DNA with sharp bends induced by binding of certain proteins, and (b) effects of…
Topology affects physical and biological properties of DNA and impacts fundamental cellular processes, such as gene expression, genome replication, chromosome structure and segregation. In all organisms DNA topology is carefully modulated…
The force-extension relation for a semi-flexible polymer such as DNA confined in a nanoslit is investigated and it is found that both the effective persistence length and the form of the force-extension relation change as the chain goes…
We introduce a coarse-grained rigid nucleotide model of DNA that reproduces the basic thermodynamics of short strands: duplex hybridization, single-stranded stacking and hairpin formation, and also captures the essential structural…
Recently the physical characterization of a number of biological processes has proven indispensable for a full understanding of natural phenomena. One such example is the mechanical properties of transcription, which have been shown to have…
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…
In this work we propose a model for DNA double helix within the tight-binding framework that incorporates the helicity of the molecules. We have studied localization properties of three DNAsequences,the periodic poly(dG)-poly(dC) and…
The folding angle distribution of stretched and negatively supercoiled DNA double-helix is investigated based on a theoretical model we proposed earlier [H. Zhou et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 4560 (1999)]. It is shown that pulling can…
We study the effect of transcription on the kinetics of DNA supercoiling in 3D by means of Brownian dynamics simulations of a single nucleotide resolution coarse-grained model for double stranded DNA. By accounting for the action of a…