Elasticity as the Basis of Allostery in DNA.

ABSTRACT: Allosteric interactions in DNA are crucial for various biological processes. These interactions are quantified by measuring the change in free energy as a function of the distance between the binding sites for two ligands. Here, we show that trends in the interaction energy of ligands binding to DNA can be explained within an elastic birod model, which accounts for the deformation of each strand as well as the change in stacking energy due to perturbations in position and orientation of the bases caused by the binding of ligands. The strain fields produced by the ligands decay with distance from the binding site. The interaction energy of two ligands decays exponentially with the distance between them and oscillates with the periodicity of the double helix in quantitative agreement with ex

SUBMITTER: Singh J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6587567 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature