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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
DNA Bending Elasticity.

DNA Bending Elasticity.

Sivak, David Alexander

Paperback

Chemistry

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 1243668423
ISBN13: 9781243668424
Publisher: Proquest Umi Dissertation Pub
Pages: 280
Weight: 1.11
Height: 0.59 Width: 7.44 Depth: 9.69
Language: English
DNA bending elasticity on length scales of tens of basepairs is of critical importance in numerous biological contexts. Even the simplest models of DNA bending admit of few simple analytic results, thus there is a need for numerical methods to calculate experimental observables, such as distance distributions, forces, FRET efficiencies, and timescales of particular large-scale motions. We have implemented and helped develop a coarse-grained representation of DNA and various other covalently-linked groups that allows simple calculation of such observables for varied experimental systems. The simple freely-jointed chain (FJC) model and extremely coarse resolution proved useful in understanding DNA threading through nanopores, identifying steric occlusion by other parts of the chain as a prime culprit for slower capture as distance to the pore decreased. Enhanced sampling techniques of a finer resolution discrete wormlike chain (WLC) model permitted calculation of cyclization rates for small chains and identified the ramifications of a thermodynamically-sound treatment of thermal melts. Adding treatment of double-stranded DNA's helical nature and single-stranded DNA provided a model system that helped demonstrate the importance of statistical fluctuations in even highly-stressed DNA mini-loops, and allowed us to verify that even these constructs show no evidence of excitation-induced softening. Additional incorporation of salt-sensitivity to the model allowed us to calculate forces and FRET efficiencies for such mini-loops and their uncircularized precursors, thereby furthering the understanding of the nature of IHF binding and bending of its recognition sequence. Adding large volume-excluding spheres linked to the ends of the dsDNA permits calculation of distance distributions and thus small-angle X-ray scattering, whereby we demonstrated the validity of the WLC in describing bending fluctuations in DNA chains as short as 42 bp. We also make important connections with even finer resolution models through the calculation of coarse-grained bending potentials from molecular dynamics simulations.

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