Issue Europhys. Lett. Volume 59, Number 3, August 2002 Page(s) 403 - 409 Section Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties DOI 10.1209/epl/i2002-00209-3

DOI: 10.1209/epl/i2002-00209-3


Europhys. Lett., 59 (3) , pp. 403-409 (2002)

Nonlinearity-induced conformational instability and dynamics of biopolymers

S. F. Mingaleev^{1, 2, 3}, Y. B. Gaididei^{2, 3}, P. L. Christiansen² and Y. S. Kivshar<sup>1

1</sup>  Nonlinear Physics Group, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering Australian National University - Canberra ACT 0200, Australia
²  Informatics and Mathematical Modeling, The Technical University of Denmark DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark
³  Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics - 14-B Metrologichna Street 03143 Kiev, Ukraine

(Received 3 December 2001; accepted 8 May 2002)

Abstract
We propose a simple phenomenological model for describing the conformational dynamics of biopolymers via the nonlinearity-induced buckling and collapse instability. We describe the buckling instability analytically, and then demonstrate its role in the folding dynamics of macromolecules through the three-dimensional numerical simulations of long semiflexible chains.

PACS
63.20.Pw - Localized modes.
87.15.By - Structure and bonding.
87.15.-v - Biomolecules: structure and physical properties.


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