Related papers: Mechanically probing the folding pathway of single…
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is involved in many regulatory and catalytic processes in the cell. The function of any RNA molecule is intimately related with its structure. In-line probing experiments provide valuable structural datasets for a…
We establish a framework for assessing whether the transition state location of a biopolymer, which can be inferred from single molecule pulling experiments, corresponds to the ensemble of structures that have equal probability of reaching…
Determination of sizes and flexibilities of RNA molecules is important in understanding the nature of packing in folded structures and in elucidating interactions between RNA and DNA or proteins. Using the coordinates of the structures of…
The functioning of double-stranded (ds) nucleic acids (NAs) in cellular processes is strongly mediated by their elastic response. These processes involve proteins that interact with dsDNA or dsRNA and distort their structures. The…
We view the folding of RNA-sequences as a map that assigns a pattern of base pairings to each sequence, known as secondary structure. These preimages can be constructed as random graphs (i.e. the neutral networks associated to the structure…
We study the folding of RNA secondary structures with quenched sequence randomness by means of the constrained annealing method. A thermodynamic phase transition is induced by including the conformational weight of loop structures. In…
The structure of the self-cleaving hairpin ribozyme is well characterized, and its folding has been examined in bulk and by single-molecule fluorescence, establishing the importance of cations, especially magnesium in the stability of the…
Fluctuations in the measured mRNA levels of unperturbed cells under fixed conditions have often been viewed as an impediment to the extraction of information from expression profiles. Here, we argue that such expression fluctuations should…
Protein sequences are believed to have been selected to provide the stability of, and reliable renaturation to, an encoded unique spatial fold. In recently proposed theoretical schemes, this selection is modeled as ``minimal frustration,''…
The forming and melting of complementary base pairs in RNA duplexes are conformational transitions required to accomplish a plethora of biological functions. Yet the dynamic steps of these transitions have not been quantitatively…
We present Molecular Dynamics simulations of a single stranded unprotonated DNA i-motif in explicit solvent. Our results indicate that the native structure in non-acidic solution at 300 K is unstable and completely vanishes on a time scale…
The elastic properties of semiflexible polymers are of great importance in biology. There are experiments on biopolymers like double stranded DNA, which twist and stretch single molecules to probe their elastic properties. It is known that…
Natural protein sequences contain a record of their history. A common constraint in a given protein family is the ability to fold to specific structures, and it has been shown possible to infer the main native ensemble by analyzing…
The mechanism of threshold elongation (overstretching) of DNA macromolecules under the action of external force is studied within the framework of phenomenological approach. When considering the task it is taken into account that…
Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) can fold into shapes that perform functions in the cell. These foldings are governed by Watson-Crick base pairing, namely Adenine to Uracil and Cytosine to Guanine (A-U and G-C). The properties of the H-P…
RNA function is intimately related to its structural dynamics. Molecular dynamics simulations are useful for exploring biomolecular flexibility but are severely limited by the accessible timescale. Enhanced sampling methods allow this…
The branching of an RNA molecule is an important structural characteristic yet difficult to predict correctly, especially for longer sequences. Using plane trees as a combinatorial model for RNA folding, we consider the thermodynamic cost,…
The process of protein folding from an unfolded state to a biologically active, folded conformation is governed by many parameters e.g the sequence of amino acids, intermolecular interactions, the solvent, temperature and chaperon…
Translocation through a nanopore is a new experimental technique to probe physical properties of biomolecules. A bulk of theoretical and computational work exists on the dependence of the time to translocate a single unstructured molecule…
Statistical DNA models available in the literature are often effective models where the base-pair state only (unbroken or broken) is considered. Because of a decrease by a factor of 30 of the effective bending rigidity of a sequence of…