title: Mean-field interactions between nucleic-acid-base dipoles can drive the formation of a double helix.
abstract: A proposed coarse-grained model of nucleic acids demonstrates that average interactions between base dipoles, together with chain connectivity and excluded-volume interactions, are sufficient to form double-helical structures of DNA and RNA molecules. Additionally, local interactions determine helix handedness and direction of strand packing. This result, and earlier research on reduced protein models, suggests that mean-field multipole-multipole interactions are the principal factors responsible for the formation of regular structure of biomolecules.
authors.affiliation: Baker Laboratory of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-1301, USA.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Maciej
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maciejczyk
authors.forename: Stanisław
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ołdziej
authors.forename: Harold A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Scheraga
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Liwo
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D012313:RNA; D004247:DNA