Direct observation of large temperature fluctuations during DNA thermal denaturation

Nagapriya, KS and Raychaudhuri, AK and Chatterji, Dipankar (2006) Direct observation of large temperature fluctuations during DNA thermal denaturation. [Preprint]

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Abstract

In this paper we report direct measurement of large low frequency temperature fluctuations in double stranded (ds) DNA when it undergoes thermal denaturation transition. The fluctuation, which occurs only in the temperature range where the denaturation occurs, is several orders more than the expected equilibrium fluctuation. It is absent in single stranded (ss) DNA of the same sequence. The fluctuation at a given temperature also depends on the wait time and vanishes in a scale of few hours. It is suggested that the large fluctuation occurs due to coexisting denaturated and closed base pairs that are in dynamic equilibrium due to transition through a potential barrier in the scale of $25 − 30k_BT_0(T_0 = 300K)$.

Item Type:	Preprint
Publication:	Los Alamos National Laboratory, Preprint Archive, Condensed Matter
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Molecular Biophysics Unit Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Physics
Date Deposited:	29 Mar 2006
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:24
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/5836

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