Related papers: Like-charge attraction and opposite-charge decompl…
We consider the influence of electrostatic forces on driven translocation dynamics of a flexible polyelectrolyte being pulled through a nanopore by an external force on the head monomer. To this end, we augment the iso-flux tension…
Charge inversion of a DNA double helix by an oppositely charged flexible polyelectrolyte (PE) is considered. We assume that, in the neutral state of the DNA-PE complex, each of the DNA charges is locally compensated by a PE charge. When an…
Electrophoretic (EP) mobility reversal is commonly observed for strongly charged macromolecules in multivalent salt solutions. This curious effect takes place, e.g., when a charged polymer, such as DNA, adsorbs excess counterions so that…
The bare Coulomb interaction between two like-charges is repulsive. When these charges are immersed in an electrolyte, the thermal fluctuations of the ions turn the bare Coulomb interaction into an effective interaction between the two…
Charge inversion of a DNA double helix by an oppositely charged flexible polyelectrolyte (PE) is widely used for gene delivery. It is considered here in terms of discrete charges of DNA. We concentrate on the worst scenario case when in the…
The phase diagram of a water solution of DNA and oppositely charged spherical macroions is studied. DNA winds around spheres to form beads-on-a-string complexes resembling the chromatin 10 nm fiber. At small enough concentration of spheres…
We study the effective interaction between differently charged polyelectrolyte-colloid complexes in electrolyte solutions via Monte Carlo simulations. These complexes are formed when short and flexible polyelectrolyte chains adsorb onto…
The transport of polyelectrolytes confined by oppositely charged surfaces and driven by a constant electric field is of interest in studies of DNA separation according to size. Using molecular dynamics simulations that include surface…
Phase separation in biomolecular mixtures can result from multiple physical interactions, which may act either complementarily or antagonistically. In the case of protein-nucleic acid mixtures, charge plays a key role but can have…
Over the past few decades the experimental literature has consistently reported observations of attraction between like-charged colloidal particles and macromolecules in solution. Examples include nucleic acids and colloidal particles in…
We study theoretically a binary system in which an attraction of unlike particles is combined with a type-independent soft core repulsion. The possible experimental implementation of the system is a mixture of DNA-covered colloids, in which…
We study a simple model of DNA divalent cationic surfactant complexation. We find that the combination of electrostatic and hydrophobic effects leads to a cooperative phenomenon in which as the amphiphile is added to the solution containing…
We study a complex formation between the DNA and cationic amphiphilic molecules. As the amphiphile is added to the solution containing DNA, a cooperative binding of surfactants to the DNA molecules is found. This binding transition occurs…
DNA is now firmly established as a versatile and robust platform for achieving synthetic nanostructures. While the folding of single molecules into complex structures is routinely achieved through engineering basepair sequences, much less…
The problem of DNA-DNA interaction mediated by divalent counterions is studied using computer simulation. Although divalent counterions cannot condense free DNA molecules in solution, we show that if DNA configurational entropy is…
Transfection of an anionic polynucleotide through a negatively charged membrane is an important problem in genetic engineering. The direct association of cationic surfactant to DNA decreases the effective negative charge of the nucleic…
The behavior of polyelectrolytes between charged surfaces immersed in semi-dilute solutions is investigated theoretically. A continuum mean field approach is used for calculating numerically concentration profiles between two electrodes…
The behavior of mobile linkers connecting two semi-flexible charged polymers, such as polyvalent counterions connecting DNA or F-actin chains, is studied theoretically. The chain bending rigidity induces an effective repulsion between…
By resorting to the thick-chain model we discuss how the stretching response of a polymer is influenced by the self-avoidance entailed by its finite thickness. The characterization of the force versus extension curve for a thick chain is…
A theory of condensation and resolubilization of a dilute DNA solution with growing concentration of multivalent cations, N is suggested. It is based on a new theory of screening of a macroion by multivalent cations, which shows that due to…