Related papers: Pulling Hairpinned Polymers
We develop a continuum elastic approach to examining the bending mechanics of semiflexible filaments with a local internal degree of freedom that couples to the bending modulus. We apply this model to study the nonlinear mechanics of a…
We present an extensive theoretical investigation of the mechanical unzipping of double-stranded DNA under the influence of an applied force. In the limit of long polymers, there is a thermodynamic unzipping transition at a critical force…
Single molecule DNA experiments often generate data from force versus extension measurements involving the tethering of a microsphere to one end of a single DNA molecule while the other is attached to a substrate. We show that the…
Recent theoretical predictions on DNA mechanical separation induced by pulling forces are numerically tested within a model in which self-avoidance for DNA strands is fully taken into account. DNA strands are described by interacting pairs…
Deformation of single stranded DNA in translocation process before reaching the pore is investigated. By solving the Laplace equation in a suitable coordinate system and with appropriate boundary conditions, an approximate solution for the…
A simple zipper model is introduced, representing in a simplified way, e.g., the folded DNA double helix or hairpin structures in RNA. The double stranded hairpin is connected to a heat bath at temperature $T$ and subject to an external…
Nanoparticles tethered with DNA strands are promising building blocks for bottom-up nanotechnology, and a theoretical understanding is important for future development. Here we build on approaches developed in polymer physics to provide…
We describe quantitatively a RNA molecule under the influence of an external force exerted at its two ends as in a typical single-molecule experiment. Our calculation incorporates the interactions between nucleotides by using the…
While stretching of most polymer chains leads to rather featureless force-extension diagrams, some, notably DNA, exhibit non-trivial behavior with a distinct plateau region. Here we propose a unified theory that connects force-extension…
Circular double stranded DNA has different topological states which are defined by their linking numbers. Equilibrium distribution of linking numbers can be obtained by closing a linear DNA into a circle by ligase. Using Monte Carlo…
I present a Hamiltonian model and a computational method suitable to evaluate structural and thermodynamic properties of helical molecules embedded in crowded environments which may confine the space available to the base pair fluctuations.…
We use a recently developed coarse-grained model for DNA to study kissing complexes formed by hybridization of complementary hairpin loops. The binding of the loops is topologically constrained because their linking number must remain…
Dynamics of a single stranded DNA, which can form a hairpin have been studied in the constant force ensemble. Using Langevin dynamics simulations, we obtained the force-temperature diagram, which differs from the theoretical prediction…
Single-molecule experiments in which force is applied to DNA or RNA molecules have enabled important discoveries of nucleic acid properties and nucleic acid-enzyme interactions. These experiments rely on a model of the polymer…
Mechanical unfolding of RNA structures, ranging from hairpins to ribozymes, using laser optical tweezer (LOT) experiments have begun to reveal the features of the energy landscape that cannot be easily explored using conventional…
The competition between toroidal and rod-like conformations as possible ground states for DNA condensation is studied as a function of the stiffness, the length of the DNA and the form of the long-range interactions between neighboring…
We calculate the spectrum of torsional vibrations of a double-stranded structure that models the double helix of the DNA. We come to the conclusion that within the framework of the model elementary excitations may display an asymmetry as…
Experiments measuring DNA extension in nanochannels are at odds with even the most basic predictions of current scaling arguments for the conformations of confined semiflexible polymers such as DNA. We show that a theory based on a weakly…
By exerting mechanical force it is possible to unfold/refold RNA molecules one at a time. In a small range of forces, an RNA molecule can hop between the folded and the unfolded state with force-dependent kinetic rates. Here, we introduce a…
Three coarse-grained models of the double-stranded DNA are proposed and compared in the context of mechanical manipulation such as twisting and various schemes of stretching. The models differ in the number of effective beads (between two…