Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25863064›Full record

ArticleBiophysical journal2015

Free-energy landscape and characteristic forces for the initiation of DNA unzipping.

Ahmet Mentes, Ana Maria Florescu, Elizabeth Brunk, Jeff Wereszczynski, Marc Joyeux, Ioan Andricioaei

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Biophysical journal, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
0.9field-weighted citation impact, top 26% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.

Ahmet MentesDepartment of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California.
Ana Maria FlorescuMax Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany; Interdisciplinary Research Institute, Université des Sciences et des Technologies de Lille, CNRS USR 3078, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France.
Elizabeth BrunkFuels Synthesis Division, Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, California; Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California; Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California.
Jeff WereszczynskiDepartment of Physics, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois.
Marc JoyeuxLaboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique (CNRS UMR5588), Université Joseph Fourier Grenoble 1, St. Martin d'Heres, France.
Ioan AndricioaeiDepartment of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California. Electronic address: andricio@uci.edu.
University of California, Irvine · USCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique · FRIllinois Institute of Technology · USJoint BioEnergy Institute · USUniversité Grenoble Alpes · FR

Funding

Role of DNA structural dynamics in mutagenesis and oncogenesisR01GM089846 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI Hashim M Al-Hashimi · 2010 to 2026
$5.2M
NIGMS NIH HHS 5R01GM089846NIGMS NIH HHS R01 GM089846
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

DNA unzipping, the separation of its double helix into single strands, is crucial in modulating a host of genetic processes. Although the large-scale separation of double-stranded DNA has been studied with a variety of theoretical and experimental techniques, the minute details of the very first steps of unzipping are still unclear. Here, we use atomistic molecular-dynamics simulations, coarse-grained simulations, and a statistical-mechanical model to study the initiation of DNA unzipping by an external force. Calculation of the potential of mean force profiles for the initial separation of the first few terminal basepairs in a DNA oligomer revealed that forces ranging between 130 and 230 pN are needed to disrupt the first basepair, and these values are an order of magnitude larger than those needed to disrupt basepairs in partially unzipped DNA. The force peak has an echo of ∼50 pN at the distance that unzips the second basepair. We show that the high peak needed to initiate unzipping derives from a free-energy basin that is distinct from the basins of subsequent basepairs because of entropic contributions, and we highlight the microscopic origin of the peak. To our knowledge, our results suggest a new window of exploration for single-molecule experiments.

Indexed as

Base PairingMolecular Dynamics SimulationDNAThermodynamicsDNA

Identifiers

PMID25863064
PMCPMC4390814
OpenAlexW1991089533

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.