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Excluded volume of an intermediate‐molecular‐weight DNA. A Monte Carlo analysis
Author(s) -
Post Carol Beth
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
biopolymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 125
eISSN - 1097-0282
pISSN - 0006-3525
DOI - 10.1002/bip.360220406
Subject(s) - monte carlo method , radius of gyration , excluded volume , chemistry , volume (thermodynamics) , gaussian , statistical physics , molecular physics , thermodynamics , computational chemistry , physics , polymer , mathematics , statistics , organic chemistry
A Monte Carlo procedure wasused to determine the effect of excluded volume on the dimensions of an intermediate‐molecular‐weight DNA for different Na + concentrations. The calculation of α, the parameter for the linear expansion due to excluded volume, was accomplished by generating sets of chains and, for each set, comparing the average radius of gyration for the set of chains that do not overlap to that averaged over the entire set of chains. Each chain was defined by cylinders linked with free rotation and with bend angles generated according to a weighted Gaussian distribution. The chain parameters—contour lenght, cylinder lenght and diameter—were fixed in order to resemble published light‐scattering experiments on Col E 1 DNA. Values for α were less than 1.08. for Na + concentrations between 0.007 and 1.0 M . A previously reported analytical calculation of the excluded‐volume correction of intermediate‐sized DNA gave results that are closely similar to those from the Monte Carlo analysis.