Adding a new dimension to DNA melting curves

S. Cuesta-Lopez; D. Angelov; M. Peyrard

doi:10.1209/0295-5075/87/48009

All issues

Volume 87 / No 4 (August 2009)

EPL, 87 4 (2009) 48009

Abstract

Issue		EPL Volume 87, Number 4, August 2009


Article Number		48009
Number of page(s)		6
Section		Interdisciplinary Physics and Related Areas of Science and Technology
DOI		https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/87/48009
Published online		08 September 2009

EPL, 87 (2009) 48009

Adding a new dimension to DNA melting curves

S. Cuesta-Lopez¹, D. Angelov² and M. Peyrard¹

¹ Université de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Laboratoire de Physique CNRS UMR 5672 46 allée d'Italie, 69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France, EU
² Université de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire de la Cellule CNRS UMR 5239 - 46 allée d'Italie, 69364 Lyon Cedex 7, France, EU

Corresponding author: Santiago.Cuesta.Lopez@ens-lyon.fr

Received: 12 May 2009
Accepted: 10 August 2009

Abstract

Standard DNA melting curves record the separation of the two strands vs. temperature, but they do not provide any information on the location of the opening. We introduce an experimental method which adds a new dimension to the melting curves of short DNA sequences by allowing us to record the degree of opening in several positions along the molecule all at once. This adds the spatial dimension to the melting curves and allows a precise investigation of the role of the base pair sequence on the fluctuations and denaturation of the DNA double helix. We illustrate the power of the method by investigating the influence of an AT-rich region on the fluctuations of neighboring domains.

PACS: 87.15.hp – Conformational changes / 82.39.Pj – Nucleic acids, DNA and RNA bases / 87.15.Cc – Folding: thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, models, and pathways

© EPLA, 2009

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