Related papers: Base-pair mismatch can destabilize small DNA loops…
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…
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…
The thermodynamical properties of heterogeneous DNA sequences are computed by path integral techniques applied to a nonlinear model Hamiltonian. The base pairs relative displacements are interpreted as time dependent paths whose amplitudes…
DNA bending is biologically important for genome regulation and is relevant to a range of nanotechnological systems. Recent results suggest that sharp bending is much easier than implied by the widely-used worm-like chain model; many of…
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…
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…
The aim of the present work is spectroscopic and thermodynamic study of DNA catalytic properties in the following processes: a) redox; b) formation of inter-strand cross-links; c) performing of photo-dynamic effects; d) nanoscale resonance…
We study numerically the mechanical stability and elasticity properties of duplex DNA molecules within the frame of a network model incorporating microscopic degrees of freedom related with the arrangement of the base pairs. We pay special…
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…
RNA folding is a kinetic process governed by the competition of a large number of structures stabilized by the transient formation of base pairs that may induce complex folding pathways and the formation of misfolded structures. Despite of…
Anomalous non-exponential relaxation in hydrated biomolecules is commonly attributed to the complexity of the free-energy landscapes, similarly to polymers and glasses. It was found recently that the hydrogen-bond breathing of terminal DNA…
Solid-state nanopore DNA sequencers present mechanical and chemical stability, reusability, and large-scale integrability. However, their development is hindered by the absence of a protein-free mechanism for controlling DNA translocation,…
Simple expressions for the bending and the base-stacking energy of double-stranded semiflexible biopolymers (such as DNA and actin) are derived. The distribution of the folding angle between the two strands is obtained by solving a…
We present a generic model for DNA at the base-pair level. We use a variant of the Gay-Berne potential to represent the stacking energy between neighboring base-pairs. The sugar-phosphate backbones are taken into account by semi-rigid…
An analysis of the stability of a duplex containing G.A mispairs or G.A/A.G tandem during DNA melting has revealed that duplex stability depends on both DNA sequences and on the conformations of the G.A mispairs. The thermodynamics of…
A statistical method is developed to estimate the maximum amplitude of the base pair fluctuations in a three dimensional mesoscopic model for nucleic acids. The base pair thermal vibrations around the helix diameter are viewed as a Brownian…
Charge transfer along the base-pair stack in DNA is modeled in terms of thermally-assisted tunneling between adjacent base pairs. Central to our approach is the notion that tunneling between fluctuating pairs is rate-limited by the…
The interaction energies between the different types of bases of a single strand of DNA molecule have been calculated. Using these original values of energies the harmonic behavior of a number of base patterns of DNA has been studied. In…
The translocation of structured RNA or DNA molecules through narrow pores necessitates the opening of all base pairs. Here, we study the interplay between the dynamics of translocation and base-pairing theoretically, using kinetic Monte…
We considered a dsDNA polymer in which distribution of bases are random at the base pair level but ordered at a length of 18 base pairs and calculated its force elongation behaviour in the constant extension ensemble. The unzipping force…