title: A theory on the origin of cooperativity in DNA renaturation kinetics.
abstract: Theoretical proof for the existence of cooperativity (experimental evidences have already reported in our earlier work: Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 293 (2002) 870) in the phenomenon of DNA renaturation has been obtained using a generalized birth-death master equation approach. Results have shown that no special searching mechanism (i.e. a facilitated mechanism) was necessary for complementary DNA strands to find their correct-contacts but searching by a 'random jump' method was enough to explain not only the observed cooperativity phenomenon but also the magnitude of correct-contact-forming rate constant. Impact of cooperativity phenomenon on length of primers and their specificity in polymerase chain reaction has also been discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Colaba, Mumbai 400005, India. muruga@tifr.res.in
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Murugan
mesh_terms: D020029:Base Pairing; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D007700:Kinetics; D008956:Models, Chemical; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization
chemical_list: D004247:DNA