Force-dependent elasticity of nucleic acids

The functioning of double-stranded (ds) nucleic acids (NAs) in cellular processes is strongly mediated by their elastic response. These processes involve proteins that interact with dsDNA or dsRNA and distort their structures. The perturbation of the elasticity of NAs arising from these deformations...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Luengo Márquez, Juan, Juan, Zalvide Pombo, Pérez Pérez, Rubén, Salvatore, Assenza
Tipo de documento: artigo
Data de publicação:2023
País:España
Recursos:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repositório:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/707606
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/707606
https://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d2nr06324g
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Optical Tweezers
Single Molecule
DNA
Física
Descrição
Resumo:The functioning of double-stranded (ds) nucleic acids (NAs) in cellular processes is strongly mediated by their elastic response. These processes involve proteins that interact with dsDNA or dsRNA and distort their structures. The perturbation of the elasticity of NAs arising from these deformations is not properly considered by most theoretical frameworks. In this work, we introduce a novel method to assess the impact of mechanical stress on the elastic response of dsDNA and dsRNA through the analysis of the fluctuations of the double helix. Application of this approach to atomistic simulations reveals qualitative differences in the force dependence of the mechanical properties of dsDNA with respect to those of dsRNA, which we relate to structural features of these molecules by means of physically-sound minimalistic models