Berlin 2008 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 2: DNA and Chromatin

BP 2.9: Talk

Monday, February 25, 2008, 12:45–13:00, PC 203

DNA Melting: a combination of Poland-Sheraga and lattice models — •Ralf Everaers — Université de Lyon, Laboratoire de Physique, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, CNRS UMR 5672, 46 allée d’Italie, 69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France

Key biological and nano-technological processes require the (partial) association and dissociation of complementary DNA strands. We present a variant of the Poland-Scheraga model which reproduces experimental data for melting temperatures for arbitrary strand length over the full experimental range of strand concentration and ionic strength of the solution. Furthermore, we show results for a corresponding lattice model of associating heteropolymers with identical melting behavior. The lattice model treats long-ranged excluded volume interactions between all parts of the molecule explicitly, provides access to an ensemble of three dimensional structures (and hence the response to external mechanical forces) and can be used for studying the kinetics of the melting transition.

R. Everaers, S. Kumar and Ch. Simm, Phys. Rev. E 75, 041918 (2007).

D. Jost and R. Everaers, submitted.