Dynamics of the Buckling Transition in Double-Stranded DNA and RNA.

ABSTRACT: DNA under torsional strain undergoes a buckling transition that is the fundamental step in plectoneme nucleation and supercoil dynamics, which are critical for the processing of genomic information. Despite its importance, quantitative models of the buckling transition, in particular to also explain the surprising two-orders-of-magnitude difference between the buckling times for RNA and DNA revealed by single-molecule tweezers experiments, are currently lacking. Additionally, little is known about the configurations of the DNA during the buckling transition because they are not directly observable experimentally. Here, we use a discrete worm-like chain model and Brownian dynamics to simulate the DNA/RNA buckling transition. Our simulations are in good agreement with experimentally determin

SUBMITTER: Ott K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7136337 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature