Related papers: Spontaneous RNA condensation into nanoring structu…
The formation of DNA loops by proteins and protein complexes that bind at distal DNA sites plays a central role in many cellular processes, such as transcription, recombination, and replication. Here we review the basic thermodynamic…
A full understanding of RNA-mediated biology would require the knowledge of three-dimensional (3D) structures, structural flexibility and stability of RNAs. To predict RNA 3D structures and stability, we have previously proposed a…
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…
RNA secondary structures of increasing complexity are probed combining single molecule stretching experiments and stochastic unfolding/refolding simulations. We find that force-induced unfolding pathways cannot usually be interpretated by…
RNA interference, particularly siRNA induced gene silencing is becoming an important avenue of modern therapeutics. The siRNA is delivered to the cells as short double helical RNA which becomes single stranded for forming the RISC complex.…
In this work, the binding of native DNA to MoS$_{2}$ nanoflakes (FLs) was studied by using UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, thermal denaturation method, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), temperature-dependent dynamic light…
Several studies suggest strong correlation between different types of cancer and the relative concentration of short circulating RNA sequences (miRNA). Because of short length and low concentration, miRNA detection is not easy. Standard…
We investigate theoretically the translocation of structured RNA/DNA molecules through narrow pores which allow single but not double strands to pass. The unzipping of basepaired regions within the molecules presents significant kinetic…
By performing a comprehensive study on 1832 segments of 1212 complete genomes of viruses, we show that in viral genomes the hairpin structures of thermodynamically predicted RNA secondary structures are more abundant than expected under a…
Interplay between structure and function in atomically thin crystalline nanoribbons is sensitive to their conformations yet the ability to prescribe them is a formidable challenge. Here, we report a novel paradigm for controlled nucleation…
We address theoretically aggregation of DNA segments by multivalent polyamines such as spermine and spermidine. In experiments, the aggregation occurs above a certain threshold concentration of multivalent ions. We demonstrate that the…
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…
From a nanoscience perspective, cellular processes and their reduced in vitro imitations provide extraordinary examples for highly robust few or single molecule reaction pathways. A prime example are biochemical reactions involving DNA…
The volume occupied by unconstrained bacterial DNA in physiological solutions exceeds 1000 times the volume of the cell. Still, it is confined to a well defined region of the cell called the nucleoid, which occupies only a fraction of the…
The recently proposed compressed backbone theory suggested that the intrinsic curvature in DNA can result from a geometric mismatch between the specific backbone length and optimal base stacking orientations. It predicted that the curvature…
The folding of biological macromolecules is a fundamental process of which we lack a full comprehension. Mostly studied in proteins and RNA, single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) also folds, at physiological salt conditions, by forming non-specific…
A nanoparticle (NP) immersed in biological media rapidly forms a corona of adsorbed proteins, which later controls the eventual fate of the particle and the route through which adverse outcomes may occur. The composition and timescale for…
The complexation of micelles or charged nanoparticles with neutral-charged block copolymers in aqueous solutions leads to the formation of colloidal superstructures also termed 'colloidal complexes'. Their primary interest relies in their…
RNA is a fundamental class of biomolecules that mediate a large variety of molecular processes within the cell. Computational algorithms can be of great help in the understanding of RNA structure-function relationship. One of the main…
Functionalization of nanoparticles or colloids is increasingly being used to develop customizable "atoms". Functionalization by attaching single strands of DNA allows for direct control of the binding between nanoparticles, since…