Related papers: DNA entropic elasticity for short molecules attach…
Many proteins interact with and deform double-stranded DNA in cells. Single-molecule experiments have studied the elasticity of DNA with helix-deforming proteins, including proteins that bend DNA. These experiments increase the need for…
DNA bending on length scales shorter than a persistence length plays an integral role in the translation of genetic information from DNA to cellular function. Quantitative experimental studies of these biological systems have led to a…
We report a theoretical study of DNA flexibility and quantitatively predict the ring closure probability as a function of DNA contour length. Recent experimental studies show that the flexibility of short DNA fragments (as compared to the…
We propose a formalism for deriving force-elongation and elongation-force relations for flexible chain molecules from analytical expressions for their radial distribution function, which provides insight into the factors controlling the…
The wormlike chain (WLC) model of DNA bending accurately reproduces single-molecule force-extension profiles of long (kilobase) chains. These bending statistics over large scales do not, however, establish a unique microscopic model for…
Force extension curves (FECs), which quantify the response of a variety of biomolecules subject to mechanical force ($f$), are often quantitatively fit using worm-like chain (WLC) or freely-jointed chain (FJC) models. These models predict…
Mechanical properties of nucleic acids play an important role in many biological processes which often involve physical deformations of these molecules. At sufficiently long length scales (say above $\sim 20-30$ base pairs) the mechanics of…
The effect of electrostatic interactions on the stretching of DNA is investigated using a simple worm like chain model. In the limit of small force there are large conformational fluctuations which are treated using a self-consistent…
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 accurate knowledge of the elastic properties of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) is key to characterize the thermodynamics of molecular reactions that are studied by force spectroscopy methods where DNA is mechanically unfolded. Examples…
Recently Storm and Nelson [1] (Phys.Rev. E67, 51906 (2003)) introduced the discrete persistent chain model which contains both features of the freely jointed chain (FJC) and the wormlike chain (WLC) models. Equation (20) of their paper is…
DNA stretching experiments are usually interpreted using the worm-like chain model; the persistence length A appearing in the model is then interpreted as the elastic stiffness of the double helix. In fact the persistence length obtained by…
The aim of the present paper is the study of the entropic elasticity of the dsDNA molecule, having a cristallographic length L of the order of 10 to 30 persistence lengths A, when it is subject to spatial obstructions. We have not tried to…
Single molecule experiments on single- and double stranded DNA have sparked a renewed interest in the force-extension of polymers. The extensible Freely Jointed Chain (FJC) model is frequently invoked to explain the observed behavior of…
The probability distributions for bending angles in double helical DNA obtained in all-atom molecular dynamics simulations are compared with theoretical predictions. The computed distributions remarkably agree with the worm-like chain…
Recent experimental data indicate that the elastic wormlike rod model of DNA that works well on long length scales may break down on shorter scales relevant to biology. According to Noy and Golestanian (Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 228101, 2012)…
Force versus extension curves measure entropic elasticity of single polymer chain in force spectroscopy experiments. A Worm-like Chain model is used to describe force extension experiments with an intrinsic chain parameter called…
The mechanical properties of molecules are today captured by single molecule manipulation experiments, so that polymer features are tested at a nanometric scale. Yet devising mathematical models to get further insight beyond the commonly…
The sequence-dependent elasticity of double-helical DNA on a nm length scale can be captured by the rigid base-pair model, whose strains are the relative position and orientation of adjacent base-pairs. Corresponding elastic potentials have…
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…