title: DNA unhooking from a single post as a deterministic process: insights from translocation modeling.
abstract: Using stochastic methods developed for DNA translocation through nanopores, we study the unhooking of a long DNA chain from an isolated stationary micropost. Such methods quickly and efficiently furnish both the full probability distribution of the unhooking time and the ensuing moments for a wide range of chain and field parameters. The results compare favorably to more realistic but computationally intense Brownian dynamics simulations. For typical chain lengths and applied electric fields used in experiments, the unhooking process is effectively deterministic; diffusive fluctuations make a negligible contribution to the first and second moments of the unhooking time. This result lends credence to continuous-time random-walk models of the overall transport process that treat the unhooking as a convective process.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, 421 Washington Ave. SE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.
authors.forename: Nabil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Laachi
authors.forename: Jaeseol
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Kevin D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Dorfman
mesh_terms: D001692:Biological Transport; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D004058:Diffusion; D008954:Models, Biological; D009010:Monte Carlo Method
chemical_list: D004247:DNA