Related papers: Conformations of Circular DNA
Using dimensionally reduced models for the numerical simulation of thin objects is highly attractive as this reduces the computational work substantially. The case of narrow thin elastic bands is considered and a convergent finite element…
The dynamics of loops at the DNA denaturation transition is studied. A scaling argument is used to evaluate the asymptotic behavior of the autocorrelation function of the state of complementary bases (either open or closed). The long-time…
We study the effects of thermal fluctuations on elastic rings. Analytical expressions are derived for correlation functions of Euler angles, mean square distance between points on the ring contour, radius of gyration, and probability…
We propose an Ashkin-Teller like model for elastic response of DNA molecule to external force and torque. The base-stacking interaction is described in a simple and uniform way. We obtain the phase diagram of dsDNA, and in particular, the…
A theory is presented of the longitudinal dispersion of DNA under equilibrium confined in a nanochannel. Orientational fluctuations of the DNA chain build up to give rise to substantial fluctuations of the coil in the longitudinal direction…
This paper focuses on mechanical aspects of chromatin biological functioning. Within a basic geometric modeling of the chromatin assembly, we give for the first time the complete set of elastic constants (twist and bend persistence lengths,…
We describe a novel coarse-grained simulation method for modelling the dynamics of globular macromolecules, such as proteins. The macromolecule is treated as a continuum that is subject to thermal fluctuations. The model includes a…
By resorting to a model inspired to the standard Davydov and Holstein-Fr\"ohlich models, in the present paper we study the motion of an electron along a chain of heavy particles modelling a sequence of nucleotides proper to a DNA fragment.…
DNA is an astonishing material that can be used as a molecular building block to construct periodic arrays and devices with nanoscale accuracy and precision. Here, we present simple bead-spring model of DNA nanostars having three, four and…
We study the effects of thermal fluctuations on a small elastic ring. We derive analytical expressions for the correlation functions of the Euler angles, for the real space two--point correlation functions and for the probability…
In living systems, DNA undergoes continuous and rhythmic mechanical remodeling through condensation, looping, and disentangling to regulate gene expression, segregate chromosomes, and guide morphogenesis. Here, we demonstrate a purely…
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 use the worm-like chain model to study supercoiling of DNA under tension and torque. The model reproduces experimental data for a broad range of forces, salt concentrations and contour lengths. We find a plane of first order phase…
Nucleic acids are highly deformable helical molecules constantly stretched, twisted and bent in their biological functioning. Single molecule experiments have shown that double stranded (ds)-RNA and standard ds-DNA have opposite…
Possibility to establish macroscopic phenomenological theory for biological systems, akin to the akin to the well-established framework of thermodynamics, is briefly reviewed. We introduce the concept of an evolutionary fluctuation-response…
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…
We propose a framework to model elastic properties of polycrystals by coupling crystal orientational degrees of freedom with elastic strains. Our model encodes crystal symmetries and takes into account explicitly the strain compatibility…
The role of thermal pressure fluctuations in the ejection of tightly packaged DNA from protein capsid shells is discussed in a model calculation. At equilibrium before ejection we assume the DNA is folded many times into a bundle of…
DNA supercoiling plays an important role in a variety of cellular processes. The torsional stress related with supercoiling may be also involved in gene regulation through the local structure and dynamics of the double helix. To check this…
The influence of tension on DNA looping has been studied both experimentally and theoretically in the past. However, different theoretical models have yielded different predictions, leaving uncertainty about their validity. We briefly…