Dynamics of intramolecular recognition: base-pairing in DNA/RNA near and far from equilibrium.
The physics of the base-pairing interaction in DNA and RNA molecules plays a fundamental role in biology. Past experimental and theoretical research has led to a fairly complete and quantitative understanding of the equilibrium properties such as the different phases, the melting behavior, and the response to slow stretching. The non-equilibrium behavior is even richer than might be expected on the basis of thermodynamics. However, the non-equilibrium behavior is also far less understood. Here, we review different theoretical approaches to the study of base-pairing thermodynamics and kinetics, and illustrate the rich phenomenology with several examples that use these approaches.
Bundschuh
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Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210-1117, USA. bundschuh@mps.ohio-state.edu
Gerland
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D020029:Base Pairing; D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D007700:Kinetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009691:Nucleic Acid Denaturation; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics
D012313:RNA; D004247:DNA