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Dynamics of the polymorphic A<->B transitions in DNA is compared for two polypurine sequences, poly(dA).poly(dT) and poly(dG).poly(dC), long known to exhibit contrasting properties in experiments. In free molecular dynamics simulations…
The structural origin of the size of the 11 nm nucleosomal disc is addressed. On the nanometer length-scale the organization of DNA as chromatin in the chromosomes involves a coiling of DNA around the histone core of the nucleosome. We…
Bacterial microcompartments are large, roughly icosahedral shells that assemble around enzymes and reactants involved in certain metabolic pathways in bacteria. Motivated by microcompartment assembly, we use coarse-grained computational and…
Voltage gated channel proteins cooperate in the transmission of membrane potentials between nerve cells. With the recent progress in atomic-scaled biological chemistry it has now become established that these channel proteins provide highly…
Features of the CRISPR-Cas system, in which bacteria integrate small segments of phage genome (spacers) into their DNA to neutralize future attacks, suggest that its effect is not limited to individual bacteria but may control the fate and…
In condensed matter physics, simplified descriptions are obtained by coarse-graining the features of a system at a certain characteristic length, defined as the typical length beyond which some properties are no longer correlated. From a…
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…
Biomolecular condensates self-assemble when proteins and nucleic acids spontaneously demix to form droplets within the crowded intracellular milieu. This simple mechanism underlies the formation of a wide variety of membraneless…
Ions in water are important in biology, from molecules to organs. Classically, ions in water are treated as ideal noninteracting particles in a perfect gas. Excess free energy of ion was zero. Mathematics was not available to deal…
The high linear charge density of 20-base-pair oligomers of DNA is shown to lead to a striking non-monotonic dependence of the long-time self-diffusion on the concentration of the DNA in low-salt conditions. This generic non-monotonic…
The assembly and maturation of viruses with icosahedral capsids must be coordinated with icosahedral symmetry. The icosahedral symmetry imposes also the restrictions on the cooperative specific interactions between genomic RNA/DNA and coat…
Water and water-mediated interactions determine thermodynamic and kinetics of protein folding, protein aggregation and self-assembly in confined spaces. To obtain insights into the role of water in the context of folding problems, we…
Bending of DNA from a straight rod to a circular form in presence of any of the mono-, di-, tri- or tetravalent counterions has been simulated in strong Coulomb coupling environment employing a previously developed energy minimization…
The self-assembly of DNA-coated colloids controlled by enzymatic reactions has the potential to enable the formation of materials with hierarchical organization and switchable configurations. However, the problem of designing such…
Understanding how the electronic excitation of DNA changes in response to different high-energy particles is central to advancing ion beam cancer therapy. While protons have been the predominant ion of choice in beam cancer therapy, heavier…
Ion transport within confined environments, like nanopores and nanotubes, is pivotal for advancing a range of applications, including biosensors, seawater desalination, and energy storage devices. Existing research does not sufficiently…
The mechanism and driving forces of chromosome segregation in the bacterial cell cycle of E. coli is one of the least understood events in its life cycle. Using principles of entropic repulsion between polymer loops confined in a cylinder,…
Negatively charged DNA can be compacted by positively charged dendrimers and the degree of compaction is a delicate balance between the strength of the electrostatic interaction and the elasticity of DNA. We report various elastic…
The rapid worldwide spread of severe viral infections, often involving novel modifications of viruses, poses major challenges to our health care systems. This means that tools that can efficiently and specifically diagnose viruses are much…
The binding of small metal ions to complex macromolecular structures is typically dominated by strong local interactions of the ion with its nearest ligands. For this reason, it is often possible to understand the microscopic origin of ion…