Localization of denaturation bubbles in random DNA sequences.

Hwa, Terence; Marinari, Enzo; Sneppen, Kim; Tang, Lei-han · Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 2003

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We study the thermodynamic and dynamic behaviors of twist-induced denaturation bubbles in a long, stretched random sequence of DNA. The small bubbles associated with weak twist are delocalized. Above a threshold torque, the bubbles of several tens of bases or larger become preferentially localized to AT-rich segments. In the localized regime, the bubbles exhibit "aging" and move around subdiffusively with continuously varying dynamic exponents. These properties are derived by using results of large-deviation theory together with scaling arguments and are verified by Monte Carlo simulations.

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