Eur. Phys. J. B 56, 253-258 (2007)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2007-00112-9

Modelling disorder: the cases of wetting and DNA denaturation

¹ Max Planck Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, Nöthnitzer Str. 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany
² Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos (GISC) and Departamento de Matemáticas, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Avenida de la Universidad 30, 28911 Leganés, Madrid, Spain
³ Instituto de Biocomputación y Física de Sistemas Complejos, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain

Corresponding author: ^a saul@mpipks-dresden.mpg.de

Received: 25 September 2006
Revised: 20 December 2006
Published online: 4 May 2007

Abstract

We study the effect of the composition of the genetic sequence on the melting temperature of double stranded DNA, using some simple analytically solvable models proposed in the framework of the wetting problem. We review previous work on disordered versions of these models and solve them when there were not preexistent solutions. We check the solutions with Monte Carlo simulations and transfer matrix numerical calculations. We present numerical evidence that suggests that the logarithmic corrections to the critical temperature due to disorder, previously found in RSOS models, apply more generally to ASOS and continuous models. The agreement between the theoretical models and experimental data shows that, in this context, disorder should be the crucial ingredient of any model while other aspects may be kept very simple, an approach that can be useful for a wider class of problems. Our work has also implications for the existence of correlations in DNA sequences.