Related papers: DNA unzipped under a constant force exhibits multi…
Solid state nanopores have emerged as powerful tools for single-molecule sensing, yet the rapid uncontrolled translocation of the molecule through the pore remains a key limitation. We have previously demonstrated that an active…
Even though the persistence length $L_P$ of double-stranded DNA plays a pivotal role in cell biology and nanotechnologies, its dependence on ionic strength $I$ lacks a consensual description. Using a high-throughput single-molecule…
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…
Dynamics of nucleosomes, the building blocks of the chromatin, has crucial effects on expression, replication and repair of genomes in eukaryotes. Beside constant movements of nucleosomes by thermal fluctuations, ATP-dependent chromatin…
30% of the DNA in E. coli bacteria is covered by proteins. Such high degree of crowding affect the dynamics of generic biological processes (e.g. gene regulation, DNA repair, protein diffusion etc.) in ways that are not yet fully…
A model of self-avoiding walk with suitable constraints on self-attraction is developed to describe the conformational behavior of a short RNA or a single stranded DNA molecule that forms hairpin structure and calculate the properties…
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…
We study the effect of transcription on the kinetics of DNA supercoiling in 3D by means of Brownian dynamics simulations of a single nucleotide resolution coarse-grained model for double stranded DNA. By accounting for the action of a…
We study the features on the unzipping process of a modified version of the Peyrard-Bishop- Dauxois model. We show that the inclusion of a barrier in the on-site potential allows for the existence of stable domain wall solutions between…
In solution, DNA is a highly charged macromolecule which bears a unit of negative charge on each phosphate of its sugar-phosphate backbone. Although partially compensated by counterions adsorbed at or condensed near it, DNA still produces a…
We model unzipping of DNA/RNA molecules subject to an external force by a spin-oscillator system. The system comprises a macroscopic degree of freedom, represented by a one-dimensional oscillator, and internal degrees of freedom,…
Because the constant extension ensemble of single chain molecule is not always equivalent with constant force ensemble, a model of double-stranded conformations, as in RNA molecules and $\beta$-sheets in proteins, with fixed extension…
Single molecule force spectroscopy of DNA strands adsorbed at surfaces is a powerful technique used in air or liquid environments to quantify their mechanical properties. Although the force responses are limited to unfolding events so far,…
Within a simple elastic theory, we study the elongation versus force characteristics of a supercoiled DNA molecule at thermal equilibrium in the regime of small supercoiling. The partition function is mapped to the path integral…
We consider a simple model for the unfolding of RNA tertiary structure under dynamic loading. The opening of such a structure is regarded as a two step process, each corresponding to the overcoming of a single energy barrier. The resulting…
The dynamics of polymer translocation through a pore has been the subject of recent theoretical and experimental works. We have considered theoretical estimates and performed computer simulations to understand the mechanism of DNA uptake…
We study the elastic behaviour of a supercoiled DNA molecule. The simplest model is that of a rod like chain, involving two elastic constants, the bending and the twist rigidities. We show that this model is singular and needs a small…
It had been proposed that overstretching double stranded DNA from the 5-5 ends will produce a new fiber form of dsDNA that is narrower than the S form that has been suggested to result when the dsDNA is overstretched from the 3-3 ends. We…
Most living systems rely on double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) to store their genetic information and perpetuate themselves. This biological information has been considered the main target of evolution. However, here we show that symmetries and…
We construct a theoretical model for the dynamics of a microscale colloidal particle, modeled as an interval, moving horizontally on a DNA-coated surface, modelled as a line coated with springs that can stick to the interval. Averaging over…