Related papers: Loop Dynamics in DNA Denaturation
The denaturation of the double helix is a template for fundamental biological functions such as replication and transcription involving the formation of local fluctuational openings. The denaturation transition is studied for heterogeneous…
The effective DNA-DNA interaction force is calculated by computer simulations with explicit tetravalent counterions and monovalent salt. For overcharged DNA molecules, the interaction force shows a double-minimum structure. The positions…
The nature and the universal properties of DNA thermal denaturation are investigated by Monte Carlo simulations. For suitable lattice models we determine the exponent c describing the decay of the probability distribution of denaturated…
A statistical model of homopolymer DNA, coupling internal base pair states (unbroken or broken) and external thermal chain fluctuations, is exactly solved using transfer kernel techniques. The dependence on temperature and DNA length of the…
Protein-DNA complexes with loops play a fundamental role in a wide variety of cellular processes, ranging from the regulation of DNA transcription to telomere maintenance. As ubiquitous as they are, their precise in vivo properties and…
Recent theoretical predictions on DNA mechanical separation induced by pulling forces are numerically tested within a model in which self-avoidance for DNA strands is fully taken into account. DNA strands are described by interacting pairs…
The thermodynamical properties of heterogeneous DNA sequences are computed by path integral techniques applied to a nonlinear model Hamiltonian. The base pairs relative displacements are interpreted as time dependent paths whose amplitudes…
Living cells provide a fluctuating, out-of-equilibrium environment in which genes must coordinate cellular function. DNA looping, which is a common means of regulating transcription, is very much a stochastic process; the loops arise from…
The absorption of ultraviolet light creates excitations in DNA, which subsequently start moving in the helix. Their fate is important for an understanding of photo damage, and is determined by the interplay of electronic couplings between…
We introduce a three-state model for a single DNA chain under tension that distinguishes between B-DNA, S-DNA and M (molten or denatured) segments and at the same time correctly accounts for the entropy of molten loops, characterized by the…
We generalize the Poland-Scheraga model to consider DNA denaturation in the presence of an external stretching force. We demonstrate the existence of a force-induced DNA denaturation transition and obtain the temperature-force phase…
A mesoscopic model for heterogeneous DNA denaturation is developed in the framework of the path integral formalism. The base pair stretchings are treated as one-dimensional, time dependent paths contributing to the partition function. The…
Based on modern single molecule techniques, we devise a number of possible experimental setups to probe local properties of DNA such as the presence of DNA-knots, loops or folds, or to obtain information on the DNA-sequence. Similarly, DNA…
We briefly review some of the models used to describe DNA denaturation dynamics, focusing on the value of the dynamical exponent $z$, which governs the scaling of the characteristic time $\tau\sim L^z$ as a function of the sequence length…
We show the existence of a high interrelation between the different loops that may appear in a DNA segment. Conformational changes in a chain segment caused by the formation of a particular loop may either promote or prevent the appearance…
We examine the conformations of a model for a short segment of closed DNA. The molecule is represented as a cylindrically symmetric elastic rod with a constraint corresponding to a specification of the linking number. We obtain analytic…
The statistical physics of homogeneous DNA is investigated by the imaginary time path integral formalism. The base pair stretchings are described by an ensemble of paths selected through a macroscopic constraint, the fulfillement of the…
In the demanding biosensing environment, improving selection efficiency strategies has become an issue of great significance. DNA minicircles containing between 200 and 400 base-pairs, also named microDNA, are representative of the…
The closure of long equilibrated denaturation bubbles in DNA is studied using Brownian dynamics simulations. A minimal mesoscopic model is used where the double-helix is made of two interacting bead-spring freely rotating strands, with a…
We develop further a statistical model coupling denaturation and chain conformations in DNA (Palmeri J, Manghi M and Destainville N 2007 Phys. Rev. Lett. 99 088103). Our Discrete Helical Wormlike Chain model takes explicitly into account…