Data di Pubblicazione:
2007
Citazione:
A composite model for DNA torsion dynamics / M. Cadoni, R. De Leo, G. Gaeta. - In: PHYSICAL REVIEW E, STATISTICAL, NONLINEAR, AND SOFT MATTER PHYSICS. - ISSN 1539-3755. - 75:2(2007), pp. 021919.021919-1-021919.021919-21. [10.1103/PhysRevE.75.021919]
Abstract:
DNA torsion dynamics is essential in the transcription process; a simple model for it, in reasonable agreement with experimental observations, has been proposed by Yakushevich (Y) and developed by several authors;
in this, the nucleotides (the DNA subunits made of a sugar-phosphate group and the attached nitrogen base) are described by a single degree of freedom. In this paper we propose and investigate, both analytically
and numerically, a “composite” version of the Y model, in which the sugar-phosphate group and the base are described by separate degrees of freedom. The model proposed here contains as a particular case the Y model and shares with it many features and results, but represents an improvement from both the conceptual and the
phenomenological point of view. It provides a more realistic description of DNA and possibly a justification for the use of models which consider the DNA chain as uniform. It shows that the existence of solitons is a generic
feature of the underlying nonlinear dynamics and is to a large extent independent of the detailed modeling of DNA. The model we consider supports solitonic solutions, qualitatively and quantitatively very similar to the
Y solitons, in a fully realistic range of all the physical parameters characterizing the DNA.
Tipologia IRIS:
01 - Articolo su periodico
Elenco autori:
M. Cadoni, R. De Leo, G. Gaeta
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