The thermal denaturation of DNA studied with neutron scattering

Andrew Wildes (1) , Nikos Theodorakopoulos (2, 3) , Jessica Valle Orero (1, 4) , Santiago Cuesta-Lopez (4) , Jean-Luc Garden (5) , Michel Peyrard (4)

1 ILL - Institut Laue-Langevin
2 Theoretical and Physical Chemistry Institute NHRF
3 Fachbereich Physik [Konstanz]
4 Phys-ENS - Laboratoire de Physique de l'ENS Lyon
5 ThEMA - Thermique Elaboration Matériaux Applications

The melting transition of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), whereby the strands of the double helix structure completely separate at a certain temperature, has been characterized using neutron scattering. A Bragg peak from B-form fibre DNA has been measured as a function of temperature, and its widths and integrated intensities have been interpreted using the Peyrard-Bishop-Dauxois (PBD) model with only one free parameter. The experiment is unique, as it gives spatial correlation along the molecule through the melting transition where other techniques cannot.

Keywords: DNA; thermal denaturation; neutron scattering

Domains: Physics [physics]; Condensed Matter [cond-mat]; Statistical Mechanics [cond-mat.stat-mech]

Andrew Wildes, Nikos Theodorakopoulos, Jessica Valle Orero, Santiago Cuesta-Lopez, Jean-Luc Garden, et al.. The thermal denaturation of DNA studied with neutron scattering. Physical Review Letters, 2011, 106 (4), pp.048101-1-4. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.048101⟩. ⟨ensl-00554005⟩