DNA Loci Cross-Talk through Thermodynamics
The recognition and pairing of specific DNA loci, though crucial for a plenty of important cellular processes, are produced by still mysterious physical mechanisms. We propose the first quantitative model from Statistical Mechanics, able to clarify the interaction allowing such “DNA cross-talk” even...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Hindawi Limited
2009-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2009/516723 |
| Summary: | The recognition and pairing of specific DNA loci, though crucial for a plenty of important cellular processes, are produced by still mysterious physical mechanisms. We propose the first quantitative model from Statistical Mechanics, able to clarify the interaction allowing such “DNA cross-talk” events. Soluble molecules, which bind some DNA recognition sequences, produce an effective attraction between distant DNA loci; if their affinity, their concentration, and the relative DNA binding
sites number exceed given thresholds, DNA colocalization occurs as a result of a thermodynamic phase transition. In this paper, after a concise report on some of the most recent experimental results, we introduce our model and carry out a detailed “in silico” analysis of it, by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Our studies, while rationalize several experimental observations, result in very interesting and testable predictions. |
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| ISSN: | 1110-7243 1110-7251 |