Related papers: Getting DNA twist rigidity from single molecule ex…
A DNA-protein complex modelled by a semiflexible chain and an attractive spherical core is studied in the situation when an external stretching force is acting on one end monomer of the chain while the other end monomer is kept fixed in…
We present a theoretical study of single-stranded DNA under stretching. Within the proposed framework, the effects of basepairing on the mechanical response of the molecule can be studied in combination with an arbitrary underlying model of…
Single-molecule stretching experiments on DNA, RNA, and other biological macromolecules opened up the possibility of an impressive progress in many fields of Life and Medical sciences. The reliability of such experiments may be crucially…
We study three-dimensional deformations of thin inextensible elastic rods with non-vanishing spontaneous curvature and torsion. In addition to the usual description in terms of curvature and torsion which considers only the configuration of…
Several recent experiments suggest that sharply bent DNA has a surprisingly high bending flexibility, but the cause of this flexibility is poorly understood. Although excitation of flexible defects can explain these results, whether such…
Although mechanical properties of DNA are well characterized at the kilo base-pair range, a number of recent experiments have suggested that DNA is more flexible at shorter length scales, which correspond to the regime that is crucial for…
DNA looping is important in DNA condensation and regulation. One method for forming a DNA loop, thought to be used by the condensing agent protamine, is bind-and-bend. In bind-and-bend, molecules bind all along the DNA, each creating a bend…
DNA is a flexible molecule, but the degree of its flexibility is subject to debate. The commonly-accepted persistence length of $l_p \approx 500\,$\AA\ is inconsistent with recent studies on short-chain DNA that show much greater…
Single molecule experiments on B-DNA stretching have revealed one or two structural transitions, when increasing the external force. They are characterized by a sudden increase of DNA contour length and a decrease of the bending rigidity.…
Gel electrophoresis is a powerful experimental method to probe the topology of DNA and other biopolymers. While there is a large body of experimental work which allows us to accurately separate different topoisomers of a molecule, a full…
The recently proposed compressed backbone theory suggested that the intrinsic curvature in DNA can result from a geometric mismatch between the specific backbone length and optimal base stacking orientations. It predicted that the curvature…
Solid-state nanopore DNA sequencers present mechanical and chemical stability, reusability, and large-scale integrability. However, their development is hindered by the absence of a protein-free mechanism for controlling DNA translocation,…
Crossover motifs are integral components for designing DNA based nanostructures and nanomechanical devices due to their enhanced rigidity compared to the normal B-DNA. Although the structural rigidity of the double helix B-DNA has been…
We study the electric properties of single-stranded DNA molecules with hairpin-like shapes in the presence of a magnetic flux. It is shown that the current amplitude can be modulated by the applied field. The details of the electric…
DNA bending is biologically important for genome regulation and is relevant to a range of nanotechnological systems. Recent results suggest that sharp bending is much easier than implied by the widely-used worm-like chain model; many of…
Three coarse-grained models of the double-stranded DNA are proposed and compared in the context of mechanical manipulation such as twisting and various schemes of stretching. The models differ in the number of effective beads (between two…
The chiral nature of DNA plays a crucial role in cellular processes. Here we use magnetic tweezers to explore one of the signatures of this chirality, the coupling between stretch and twist deformations. We show that the extension of a…
Gel electrophoresis allows to separate knotted DNA (nicked circular) of equal length according to the knot type. At low electric fields, complex knots being more compact, drift faster than simpler knots. Recent experiments have shown that…
By resorting to the thick-chain model we discuss how the stretching response of a polymer is influenced by the self-avoidance entailed by its finite thickness. The characterization of the force versus extension curve for a thick chain is…
We construct a theoretical model for the dynamics of a microscale colloidal particle, modeled as an interval, moving horizontally on a DNA-coated surface, modelled as a line coated with springs that can stick to the interval. Averaging over…