Related papers: DNA Spools under Tension
Studies of circular DNA confined to nanofluidic channels are relevant both from a fundamental polymer-physics perspective and due to the importance of circular DNA molecules in vivo. We here observe the unfolding of DNA from the circular to…
Recent experimental and theoretical approaches have attempted to quantify the physical organization (compaction and geometry) of the bacterial chromosome with its complement of proteins (the nucleoid). The genomic DNA exists in a complex…
The adsorption of DNA or other polyelectrolyte molecules on charged membranes is a recurrent motif in soft matter and bionanotechnological systems. Two typical situations encountered are the deposition of single DNA chains onto substrates…
When pulled along the axis, double-strand DNA undergoes a large conformational change and elongates roughly twice its initial contour length at a pulling force about 70 pN. The transition to this highly overstretched form of DNA is very…
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…
The internal motions of DNA immersed in bio-fluid are investigated. The interactions between the fragments of DNA and the surrounding bio-fluid are modeled using the gauge fluid lagrangian. In the model, the bio-fluid is coupled to the…
DNA supercoils are generated in genome regulation processes such as transcription and replication, and provide mechanical feedback to such processes. Under tension, DNA supercoil can present a coexistence state of plectonemic (P) and…
We use a coarse-grained molecular model to study the self-assembly process of complexes of cationic and neutral lipids with DNA molecules ("lipoplexes") - a promising nonviral carrier of DNA for gene therapy. We identify the resulting…
The structural flexibility of nucleic acids plays a key role in many fundamental life processes, such as gene replication and expression, DNA-protein recognition, and gene regulation. To obtain a thorough understanding of nucleic acid…
The formation of polaron and its migration in a DNA chain are studied within a semiclassical Peyrard-Biship-Holstein polaron model. Comparing the energetics of the polaron system found from the quantum chemical and semiclassical…
The symmetries of the DNA double helix require a new term in its linear response to stress: the coupling between twist and stretch. Recent experiments with torsionally-constrained single molecules give the first direct measurement of this…
The transport of macromolecules, such as DNA, through the cytoskeleton is critical to wide-ranging cellular processes from cytoplasmic streaming to transcription. The rigidity and steric hindrances imparted by the network of filaments…
When multivalent salts are added to dilute DNA solution, the DNA chains condense into bundles of a well-defined size. We explore two physical problems motivated by this phenomenon: the origin of the attractive interactions between the…
Nucleosome core particle is a dynamic structure -- DNA may transiently peel off the histone octamer surface due to thermal fluctuations or the action of chromatin remodeling enzymes. Partial DNA unwrapping enables easier access of…
Recent advances in operating and manipulating DNA have provided unique experimental possibilities in many fields of DNA research, especially in gene therapy. Researchers have deployed many techniques, experimental and theoretical, to study…
A multiscale approach is used to simulate the translocation of DNA through a nanopore. Within this scheme, the interactions of the molecule with the surrounding fluid (solvent) are explicitly taken into account. By generating polymers of…
We report studies of the equilibrium and the dynamics of a general set of lattice models which capture the essence of the force-induced or mechanical DNA unzipping transition. Besides yielding the whole equilibrium phase diagram in the…
Topology affects physical and biological properties of DNA and impacts fundamental cellular processes, such as gene expression, genome replication, chromosome structure and segregation. In all organisms DNA topology is carefully modulated…
The human proteome is enriched in proteins that do not fold into a stable 3D structure. These intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) spontaneously fluctuate between a large number of configurations in their native form. Remarkably, the…
The macromolecules that encode and translate information in living systems, DNA and RNA, exhibit distinctive structural asymmetries, including homochirality or mirror image asymmetry and $3' - 5'$ directionality, that are invariant across…