https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/s10051-023-00492-4
Regular Article - Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Model for melting transition of twisted DNA in a thermal bath
1
Department of Physics, School of Sciences and Humanities, Nazarbayev University, 010000, Astana, Kazakhstan
2
College of Engineering and Computer Science, VinUniversity, 100000, Hanoi, Vietnam
3
Department of Engineering, Abhar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Abhar, Iran
4
Department of Children Diseases with Courses in Allergy and Endocrinology NJSC, Astana Medical University, Astana, Kazakhstan
Received:
22
October
2022
Accepted:
11
February
2023
Published online:
23
February
2023
We investigated the melting transition of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) embedded in a Langevin fluctuation–dissipation thermal bath. Torsional effects were taken into consideration by introducing a twist angle 
between neighboring base pairs stacked along the molecule backbone. We use the Barbi–Cocco–Payrard model to numerically study the impact of the twist angle on the melting temperature, considering four different sequences composed of 69 base pairs. According to the outcomes of our simulation, for all heterogeneous sequences, an increase in twist angle leads to a linear rise in melting temperature with a positive slope. For angles greater than the so-called equilibrium angle, the DNA chain becomes very rigid against opening and accordingly high temperatures are required to initiate the melting process. We also investigate the opening probability of bubbles, the bubble lifetime profiles and bubble length along the different DNA sequences.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, SIF and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
