Related papers: Chromatin dynamics: Nucleosomes go mobile through …
Nucleic acids have been regarded as stiff polymers with long-range flexibility and generally modeled using elastic rod models of polymer physics. Notwithstanding, investigations carried out over the past few years on single fragments of…
We present a statistical-mechanical analysis of the positioning of nucleosomes along one of the chromosomes of yeast DNA as a function of the strength of the binding potential and of the chemical potential of the nucleosomes. We find a…
Amoeboid cell migration is characterized by frequent changes of the direction of motion and resembles a persistent random walk on long time scales. Although it is well known that cell migration is typically driven by the actin cytoskeleton,…
We review statistical-mechanical theories of single-molecule micromanipulation experiments on nucleic acids. First, models for describing polymer elasticity are introduced. We then review how these models are used to interpret…
In the nuclei of eukaryotic cells, DNA is packaged through several levels of compaction in an orderly retrievable way that enables the correct regulation of gene expression. The functional dynamics of this assembly involves the unwinding of…
Observations of single epidermal cells on flat adhesive substrates have revealed two distinct morphological and functional states, namely a non-migrating symmetric unpolarized state and a migrating asymmetric polarized state. These states…
Self-propelled particles move along circles rather than along a straight line when their driving force does not coincide with their propagation direction. Examples include confined bacteria and spermatozoa, catalytically driven nanorods,…
Chromatin is a highly compact and dynamic nuclear structure that consists of DNA and associated proteins. The main organizational unit is the nucleosome, which consists of a histone octamer with DNA wrapped around it. Histone proteins are…
In this paper we have investigated, through computer simulations, dislocation nucleation and dislocation dynamics in a heterostructure system with the lattice-mismatch interface, i.e. a system with internal strain. In particular, we have…
In this paper, we investigate mechanical motion of ultra-slow single atoms considering each atom is coherently coupled to a traveling-wave light. The main noise in this system is originated from Doppler broadening due to the continuous…
By observing reconstituted chromatin by fluorescence microscopy (FM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), we found that the density of nucleosomes exhibits a bimodal profile, i.e., there is a large transition between the dense and dispersed…
The interplay between bending of the molecule axis and appearance of disruptions in circular DNA molecules, with $\sim 100$ base pairs, is addressed. Three minicircles with different radii and almost equal content of AT and GC pairs are…
The origin of biological motion can be traced back to the function of molecular motor proteins. Cytoplasmic dynein and kinesin transport organelles within our cells moving along a polymeric filament, the microtubule. The motion of the…
A propagating "beam" triggering a local phase transition in a nematic elastomer sets it into a crawling motion, which may morph due to buckling. We consider the motion of the various configurations of slender rods and thin stripes with both…
A simple model of DNA based on two interacting polymers has been used to study the unzipping of a double stranded DNA subjected to a periodic force. We propose a dynamical transition, where without changing the physiological condition, it…
Using both atomistic and particle-based simulations, we investigate the current-driven dynamics of skyrmions on two-dimensional periodic substrates when there are multiple skyrmions per substrate minimum. At zero drive, the system forms…
Recent single molecule experiments probing the passage process of a short single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) through a membrane channel (translocation) allow to measure the passage time distribution. Building on a recent modelling approach (D. K.…
We investigate the kinetics of the DNA melting transition using modified versions of the Peyrard-Dauxois-Bishop and Poland-Scheraga models that include long and short range interactions. Using Brownian dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations,…
We study the dynamics of local bond orientation in regular hyperbranched polymers modeled by Vicsek fractals. The local dynamics is investigated through the temporal autocorrelation functions of single bonds and the corresponding relaxation…
Deformations of single-wall carbon nanotubes are investigated within the tight-binding model with deformation-dependent hopping energies. We show that the nanotubes tend to twist and shrink spontaneously at zero temperature. The explicit…