Related papers: Phase Diagram for Unzipping DNA Using a Bond-Force…
Accurate knowledge of the thermodynamic properties of nucleic acids is crucial to predicting their structure and stability. To date most measurements of base-pair free energies in DNA are obtained in thermal denaturation experiments, which…
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,…
Motivated by the experiments on DNA under torsion, we consider the problem of pulling a polymer out of a potential well by a force applied to one of its ends. If the force is less than a critical value, then the process is activated and has…
We study by using Monte Carlo simulations the hysteresis in unzipping and rezipping of a double stranded DNA (dsDNA) by pulling its strands in opposite directions in the fixed force ensemble. The force is increased, at a constant rate from…
Single molecule studies, at constant force, of the separation of double-stranded DNA into two separated single strands may provide information relevant to the dynamics of DNA replication. At constant applied force, theory predicts that the…
We present a dynamical model of DNA mechanical unzipping under the action of a force. The model includes the motion of the fork in the sequence-dependent landscape, the trap(s) acting on the bead(s), and the polymeric components of the…
We unzip DNA molecules using optical tweezers and determine the sizes of the cooperatively unzipping and zipping regions separating consecutive metastable intermediates along the unzipping pathway. Sizes are found to be distributed…
We review the basic concepts and tools for mechanically unzipping RNA hairpins using force spectroscopy. By pulling apart the ends of an RNA molecule using optical tweezers, it is possible to measure the folding free energy at varying…
Mechanical unfolding trajectories, generated by applying constant force in optical tweezer experiments, show that RNA hairpins and the P5abc subdomain of the group I intron unfold reversibly. We use coarse-grained Go-like models for RNA…
The complementary strands of DNA molecules can be separated when stretched apart by a force; the unzipping signal is correlated to the base content of the sequence but is affected by thermal and instrumental noise. We consider here the…
Experimental studies of the thermal denaturation of DNA yield a strong indication that the transition is first order. This transition has been theoretically studied since the early sixties, mostly within an approach in which the microscopic…
Unbinding of a double-stranded DNA reduces to an unscreened long range interaction and maps on various problems. Heterogeneity renormalizes interaction. Renormalization is temperature dependent. At an unbinding transition it approaches…
We study the effect of random forces on a double stranded DNA in unzipping the two strands, analogous to the problem of an adsorbed polymer under a random force. The ground state develops bubbles of various lengths as the random force…
Using all atom molecular dynamics simulations, we report spontaneous unzipping and strong binding of small interfering RNA (siRNA) on graphene. Our dispersion corrected density functional theory based calculations suggest that nucleosides…
The opening of the Y-fork - the first step of DNA replication - is shown to be a critical phenomenon under an external force at one of its ends. From the results of an equivalent delocalization in a non-hermitian quantum-mechanics problem…
We propose that supercoiling energizes double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) so as to facilitate thermal fluctuations to an unzipped state. We support this with a model of two elastic rods coupled via forces that represent base pair interactions.…
We investigate the voltage-driven transport of hybridized DNA through membrane channels. As membrane channels are typically too narrow to accommodate hybridized DNA, the dehybridization of the DNA is the critical rate limiting step in the…
DNA unzipping by nanopore translocation has implications in diverse contexts, from polymer physics to single-molecule manipulation to DNA-enzyme interactions in biological systems. Here we use molecular dynamics simulations and a…
We have measured the temperature driven denaturing, or melting transition in poly d(A)-poly d(T) DNA oligomers of various lengths in different buffer conditions. Our findings are in clear disagreement with two state, reaction kinetics…
We have studied the separation of a double stranded DNA (dsDNA), which is driven either by the temperature or force. By monitoring the probability of opening of entire base pairs along the chain, we show that the opening of a dsDNA depends…