Related papers: Short DNA persistence length in a mesoscopic helic…
By means of extensive replica-exchange simulations of generic coarse-grained models for helical polymers, we systematically investigate the structural transitions into all possible helical phases for flexible and semiflexible elastic…
The simplest model of DNA mechanics describes the double helix as a continuous rod with twist and bend elasticity. Recent work has discussed the relevance of a little-studied coupling $G$ between twisting and bending, known to arise from…
The approach for the description of the DNA conformational transformations on the mesoscopic scales in the frame of the double helix is presented. Due to consideration of the joint motions of DNA structural elements along the conformational…
We propose a generic model of driven DNA under the influence of an oscillatory force of amplitude $F$ and frequency $\nu$ and show the existence of a dynamical transition for a chain of finite length. We find that the area of the hysteresis…
We examine the effects of thermal fluctuations on thin elastic filaments with non-circular cross-section and arbitrary spontaneous curvature and torsion. Analytical expressions for orientational correlation functions and for the persistence…
It is well-established that many physical properties of DNA at sufficiently long length scales can be understood by means of simple polymer models. One of the most widely used elasticity models for DNA is the twistable worm-like chain…
We construct a theoretical model for the dynamics of a microscale colloidal particle, modeled as an interval, moving horizontally on a DNA-coated surface, modelled as a line coated with springs that can stick to the interval. Averaging over…
While the behavior of double stranded DNA at mesoscopic scales is fairly well understood, less is known about its relation to the rich mechanical properties in the base-pair scale, which is crucial, for instance, to understand DNA-protein…
A versatile approach to modeling the conformations and energetics of DNA loops is presented. The model is based on the classical theory of elasticity, modified to describe the intrinsic twist and curvature of DNA, the DNA bending…
Base stacking is crucial in nucleic acid stabilization, from DNA duplex hybridization to single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) protein binding. While stacking energies are tiny in ssDNA, they are inextricably mixed with hydrogen bonding in DNA base…
We show that a mesoscale model, with a minimal number of parameters, can well describe the thermomechanical and mechanochemical behavior of homogeneous DNA at thermal equilibrium under tension and torque. We predict critical temperatures…
We use optical tweezers to perform stretching experiments on DNA molecules when interacting with the drugs daunomycin and ethidium bromide, which intercalate the DNA molecule. These experiments are performed in the low-force regime from…
We study the unexpected high flexibility of short dsDNA which recently has been reported by a number of experiments. Via the Langevin dynamics simulation of our Breathing DNA model, first we observe the formation of bubbles within the…
We study the elastic behaviour of a supercoiled DNA molecule. The simplest model is that of a rod like chain, involving two elastic constants, the bending and the twist rigidities. We show that this model is singular and needs a small…
In this work we investigate the electronic transport along model DNA molecules using an effective tight-binding approach that includes the backbone on site energies. The localization length and participation number are examined as a…
Plectonemes are intertwined helically looped domains which form when a DNA molecule is supercoiled, i.e. over- or under-wounded. They are ubiquitous in cellular DNA and their physical properties have attracted significant interest both from…
The elastic properties of semiflexible polymers are of great importance in biology. There are experiments on biopolymers like double stranded DNA, which twist and stretch single molecules to probe their elastic properties. It is known that…
The so called long range correlation properties of DNA sequences are studied using the variance analyses of the density distribution of a single or a group of nucleotides in a model independent way. This new method which was suggested…
Single molecule experiments on single- and double stranded DNA have sparked a renewed interest in the force-extension of polymers. The extensible Freely Jointed Chain (FJC) model is frequently invoked to explain the observed behavior of…
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…