Constrained thermal denaturation of DNA under fixed linking number

• Authors: Amir Bar , Alkan Kabakçıoğlu , David Mukamel
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

A DNA molecule with freely fluctuating ends undergoes a sharp thermal denaturation transition upon heating. However, in circular DNA chains and some experimental setups that manipulate single DNA molecules, the total number of turns (linking number) is constant at all times. The consequences of this additional topological invariant on the melting behaviour are nontrivial. Below, we investigate the melting characteristics of a homogeneous DNA where the linking number along the melting curve is preserved by supercoil formation in duplex portions. We obtain the mass fraction and the number of loops and supercoils below and above the melting temperature. We also argue that a macroscopic loop appears at T
c and calculate its size as a function of temperature.

Keywords

EN

DNA denaturation; circular DNA; supercoiling

• Publisher: De Gruyter Open
• Journal: Open Physics
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 582-586

Dates

published

1 - 6 - 2012

online

17 - 6 - 2012

Contributors

author

Amir Bar

author

Alkan Kabakçıoğlu

• Department of Physics, Koç University, Sarıyer, 34450, İstanbul, Turkey

author

David Mukamel

• Department of Physics of Complex Systems, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/s11534-012-0070-7