dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaDNA Dynamics in A Water Drop
| Authors | Alexey K. Mazur |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0204001 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0204001 |
Abstract
Due to its polyionic character the DNA double helix is stable and biologically active only in salty aqueous media where its charge is compensated by solvent counterions. Monovalent metal ions are ubiquitous in DNA environment and they are usually considered as the possible driving force of sequence-dependent modulations of DNA structure that make it recognizable by proteins. In an effort to directly examine this hypothesis, MD simulations of DNA in a water drop surrounded by vacuum were carried out, which relieves the requirement of charge neutrality. Surprisingly, with zero concentration of counterions a dodecamer DNA duplex appears metastable and its structure remains similar to that observed in experiments.
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"abstract": "Due to its polyionic character the DNA double helix is stable and\nbiologically active only in salty aqueous media where its charge is compensated\nby solvent counterions. Monovalent metal ions are ubiquitous in DNA environment\nand they are usually considered as the possible driving force of\nsequence-dependent modulations of DNA structure that make it recognizable by\nproteins. In an effort to directly examine this hypothesis, MD simulations of\nDNA in a water drop surrounded by vacuum were carried out, which relieves the\nrequirement of charge neutrality. Surprisingly, with zero concentration of\ncounterions a dodecamer DNA duplex appears metastable and its structure remains\nsimilar to that observed in experiments.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0204001",
"authors": [
"Alexey K. Mazur"
],
"categories": [
"physics.bio-ph",
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"title": "DNA Dynamics in A Water Drop",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0204001"
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