Computer Simulation of DNA Double-helix Dynamics
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
The static structure of DNA has been known for 30 years (Watson and Crick 1953). During the past 5 years, DNA has been shown to have a surprising degree of conformational flexibility in that the number of base pairs per turn is not the same in solution and in fibers (Arnott and Hukins 1972; Wang 1979; Rhodes and Klug 1980), that the base and backbone atoms undergo angular motions of large amplitude (>25°) on a time scale of nanoseconds (Early and Kearns 1979; Bolton and James 1980; Hogan and Jardetsky 1980), and that there are cooperative conformational transitions mediated by changing environment or binding of drug molecules (Sobell et al. 1977; Hogan et al. 1979; Dattagupta and Crothers 1981). Model building and computer calculations have considered the static deformation of the DNA double helix by kinking (Crick and Klug 1975; Sobell et al. 1977) or by smooth bending (Levitt 1978...
