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Photo of Tobias Ambjörnsson

Tobias Ambjörnsson

Senior lecturer

Photo of Tobias Ambjörnsson

Master equation approach to DNA breathing in heteropolymer DNA

Author

  • Tobias Ambjörnsson
  • Suman K. Banik
  • Michael A. Lomholt
  • Ralf Metzler

Summary, in English

After crossing an initial barrier to break the first base-pair (bp) in double-stranded DNA, the disruption of further bps is characterized by free energies up to a few kBT. Thermal motion within the DNA double strand therefore causes the opening of intermittent single-stranded denaturation zones, the DNA bubbles. The unzipping and zipping dynamics of bps at the two zipper forks of a bubble, where the single strand of the denatured zone joins the still intact double strand, can be monitored by single molecule fluorescence or NMR methods. We here establish a dynamic description of this DNA breathing in a heteropolymer DNA with given sequence in terms of a master equation that governs the time evolution of the joint probability distribution for the bubble size and position along the sequence. The transfer coefficients are based on the Poland-Scheraga free energy model. We derive the autocorrelation function for the bubble dynamics and the associated relaxation time spectrum. In particular, we show how one can obtain the probability densities of individual bubble lifetimes and of the waiting times between successive bubble events from the master equation. A comparison to results of a stochastic Gillespie simulation shows excellent agreement.

Publishing year

2007

Language

English

Publication/Series

Physical Review E

Volume

75

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

American Physical Society

Topic

  • Biophysics
  • Other Physics Topics

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1539-3755