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Dynamic Release of Bending Stress in Short dsDNA by Formation of a Kink and Forks
Author(s) -
Kim Cheolhee,
Lee Ochul,
Kim JaeYeol,
Sung Wokyung,
Lee Nam Ki
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201502055
Subject(s) - bending , curvature , stress (linguistics) , materials science , physics , crystallography , chemistry , thermodynamics , geometry , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics
Bending with high curvature is one of the major mechanical properties of double‐stranded DNA (dsDNA) that is essential for its biological functions. The emergence of a kink arising from local melting in the middle of dsDNA has been suggested as a mechanism of releasing the energy cost of bending. Herein, we report that strong bending induces two types of short dsDNA deformations, induced by two types of local melting, namely, a kink in the middle and forks at the ends, which we demonstrate using D‐shaped DNA nanostructures. The two types of deformed dsDNA structures dynamically interconvert on a millisecond timescale. The transition from a fork to a kink is dominated by entropic contribution (anti‐Arrhenius behavior), while the transition from a kink to a fork is dominated by enthalpic contributions. The presence of mismatches in dsDNA accelerates kink formation, and the transition from a kink to a fork is removed when the mismatch size is three base pairs.