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Electrophoretic mobility of DNA in gels. I. New biased reptation theory including fluctuations
Author(s) -
Duke Thomas,
Viovy JeanLouis,
Semenov Alexander N.
Publication year - 1994
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.360340210
Subject(s) - reptation , chemistry , electric field , electrophoresis , field (mathematics) , diffusion , statistical physics , chemical physics , physics , thermodynamics , polymer , quantum mechanics , chromatography , mathematics , organic chemistry , pure mathematics
Abstract In weak electric fields, the motion of DNA molecules undergoing gel electrophoresis may be described by biased reptation. We argue that the degree of molecular orientation induced by the field is determined by a competition between longitudinal fluctuations and drift of the molecule along the tube. A self‐consistent calculation shows that the end‐to‐end vector of long molecules varies with the square root of the field strength, and not linearly as previously supposed. This leads to a number of new predictions about the field dependence of the molecular mobility and the size limit of resolution. We present the results of computer simulations that support the predictions of the theory of biased reptation including fluctuations. Finally, we discuss the correspondence with experimental data and the implications of our findings for the optimization of DNA electrophoresis. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.