@article{Sales2005,
title={Mesoscopic modeling for nucleic acid chain dynamics},
author={Sales-Pardo M, 
Guimera R, 
Moreira AA, 
Widom J, 
Amaral LAN},
abstract={To gain a deeper insight into cellular processes such as transcription and translation, one needs to uncover the mechanisms controlling the configurational changes of nucleic acids. As a step toward this aim, we present here a mesoscopic-level computational model that provides a new window into nucleic acid dynamics. We model a single-stranded nucleic as a polymer chain whose monomers are the nucleosides. Each monomer comprises a bead representing the sugar molecule and a pin representing the base. The bead-pin complex can rotate about the backbone of the chain. We consider pairwise stacking and hydrogen-bonding interactions. We use a modified Monte Carlo dynamics that splits the dynamics into translational bead motion and rotational pin motion. By performing a number of tests, we first show that our model is physically sound. We then focus on a study of the kinetics of a DNA hairpin-a single-stranded molecule comprising two complementary segments joined by a noncomplementary loop-studied experimentally. We find that results from our simulations agree with experimental observations, demonstrating that our model is a suitable tool for the investigation of the hybridization of single strands.},
journal={Physical Review E},
volume={71},
doi={10.1103/PhysRevE.71.051902},
year={2005},
month={MAY},
day={1},
pages={051902},
}