Related papers: The effect of genome length on ejection forces in …
Most bacteriophages are known to inject their double-stranded DNA into bacteria upon receptor binding in an essentially spontaneous way. This downhill thermodynamic process from the intact virion toward the empty viral capsid plus released…
We present a numerical study of the effect of knotting on the ejection of flexible and semiflexible polymers from a spherical, virus-like capsid. The polymer ejection rate is primarily controlled by the knot, which moves to the hole in the…
We considered a dsDNA polymer in which distribution of bases are random at the base pair level but ordered at a length of 18 base pairs and calculated its force elongation behaviour in the constant extension ensemble. The unzipping force…
We discuss theoretically the force F between two colloidal particles, each of them carrying one single strand DNA. The two strands are complementary only on a finite sequence of consecutive base pairs. We define an adjustment length (a few…
We investigate the effects excluded volume on the stretching of a single DNA in solution. We find that for small force F, the extension h is not linear in F but proportion to F^{\chi}, with \chi=(1-\nu)/\nu, where \nu is the well-known…
Genome length varies widely among organisms, from compact genomes of prokaryotes to vast and complex genomes of eukaryotes. In this study, we theoretically identify the evolutionary pressures that may have driven this divergence in genome…
The impact of damping effect and external forces to the DNA breathing is investigated within the Peyrard-Bishop model. In in the continuum limit, the dynamics of the breathing of DNA is described by the forced-damped nonlinear Schrodinger…
The two strands of the DNA double helix can be `unzipped' by application of 15 pN force. We analyze the dynamics of unzipping and rezipping, for the case where the molecule ends are separated and re-approached at constant velocity. For…
Biophysicists and structural biologists increasingly acknowledge the role played by the mechanical properties of macromolecules as a critical element in many biological processes. This change has been brought about, in part, by the advent…
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…
The denaturation of double-stranded DNA as function of force and temperature is discussed. At room temperature, sequence heterogeneity dominates the physics of single molecule force-extension curves starting about 7 piconewtons of below a…
We studied the electrical conductivity of DNA molecules with conducting atomic force microscopy as a function of the chemical nature of the substrate surfaces, the nature of the electrical contact, and the number of DNA molecules (from a…
We use a mesoscale simulation approach to explore the impact of different capsid geometries on the packaging and ejection dynamics of polymers of different flexibility. We find that both packing and ejection times are faster for flexible…
The unconstrained genomic DNA of bacteria forms a coil, which volume exceeds 1000 times the volume of the cell. Since prokaryotes lack a membrane-bound nucleus, in sharp contrast with eukaryotes, the DNA may consequently be expected to…
We summarize some aspects of electrostatic interactions in the context of viruses. A simplified but, within well defined limitations, reliable approach is used to derive expressions for electrostatic energies and the corresponding osmotic…
We study the compression and extension dynamics of a DNA-like polymer interacting with non-DNA binding and DNA-binding proteins, by means of computer simulations. The geometry we consider is inspired by recent experiments probing the…
Structural changes in giant DNA induced by the addition of the flexible polymer PEG were examined by the method of single-DNA observation. In dilute DNA conditions, individual DNA assumes a compact state via a discrete coil-globule…
Bunching of steps at the surface of growing crystals can be induced by both directions of the driving force: step up and step down. The processes happen in different adatom concentrations and differ in character. In this study we show how…
The problem of inhibiting viral DNA ejection from bacteriophages by multivalent counterions, specifically Mg$^{+2}$ counterions, is studied. Experimentally, it is known that MgSO$_4$ salt has a strong and non-monotonic effect on the amount…
The unzipping transition under the influence of external force of a dsDNA molecule has been studied using the Peyrard-Bishop Hamiltonian. The critical force $F_c(T)$ is found to depend on the potential parameters $k$, represents the…