title: The flexibility of DNA. II. Spontaneous and ligand induced distortions.
abstract: DNA can bend not only as a result of smooth worm-like deviations from linearity, but also in an abrupt fashion because of natural spontaneous fluctuations in structure (breathing modes, kinks, etc.) and because its interaction with other molecules (dyes, proteins, other ligands). It is shown how all these structural deformations can be treated with a single geometrical model and the statistical theory of such deformations is developed into specific formulas for persistence and mean directions. The statistical theory does not apply to bending which is cooperative or site specific.
mesh_terms: D001482:Base Composition; D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002627:Chemistry, Physical; D004247:DNA; D008433:Mathematics; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation
chemical_list: D004247:DNA