title: Denaturation transition of stretched DNA.
abstract: We generalize the Poland-Scheraga model to consider DNA denaturation in the presence of an external stretching force. We demonstrate the existence of a force-induced DNA denaturation transition and obtain the temperature-force phase diagram. The transition is determined by the loop exponent c, for which we find the new value c = 4 nu-1/2 such that the transition is second order with c = 1.85 < 2 in d = 3. We show that a finite stretching force F destabilizes DNA, corresponding to a lower melting temperature T(F), in agreement with single-molecule DNA stretching experiments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas at Brownsville, 80 Fort Brown, Brownsville, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hanke
authors.forename: Martha G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Ochoa
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Metzler
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D004277:DNA, Single-Stranded / Q000737:chemistry; D008956:Models, Chemical; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009691:Nucleic Acid Denaturation
chemical_list: D004277:DNA, Single-Stranded; D004247:DNA