The recently introduced method of excess collisions (MEC) is modified to estimate diffusion-controlled reaction times inside systems of arbitrary size. The resulting MEC-E equations contain a set of empirical parameters, which have to be calibrated in numerical simulations inside a test system of moderate size. Once this is done, reaction times of systems of arbitrary dimensions are derived by extrapolation, with an accuracy of 10 to 15 percent. The achieved speed up, when compared to explicit simulations of the reaction process, is increasing proportional to the extrapolated volume of the cell.
It has long been asserted that proteins like transcription factors may locate their target in DNA sequences at rates that surpass by several orders of magnitude the three-dimensional diffusion limit thank to facilitated diffusion, that is the combination of one-dimensional (sliding along the DNA) and three-dimensional diffusion. This claim has been supported along the years by several mass action kinetic models, while the dynamical model we proposed recently (J. Chem. Phys. 130, 015103 (2009)) suggests that acceleration of targeting due to facilitated diffusion cannot be large. In order to sol…
In this paper, a new method to efficiently simulate diffusion controlled second order chemical reactions is derived and applied to site-specific DNA-binding proteins. The protein enters a spherical cell and propagates via two competing modes, a free diffusion and a DNA-sliding mode, to search for its specific binding site in the center of the cell. There is no need for a straightforward simulation of this process. Instead, an alternative and exact approach is shown to be essentially faster than explicit random-walk simulations. The speed-up of this novel simulation technique is rapidly growing…
We propose a dynamical model for non-specific DNA-protein interaction, which is based on the 'bead-spring' model previously developed by other groups, and investigate its properties using Brownian Dynamics simulations. We show that the model successfully reproduces some of the observed properties of real systems and predictions of kinetic models. For example, sampling of the DNA sequence by the protein proceeds via a succession of 3d motion in the solvent, 1d sliding along the sequence, short hops between neighboring sites, and intersegmental transfers. Moreover, facilitated diffusion takes pl…
In the course of various biological processes, specific DNA-binding proteins must find a particular target sequence/protein or a damaged site on the DNA efficiently. DNA-binding proteins perform this task based on diffusion. Yet, investigations over recent decades have found that the diffusion dynamics of DNA-binding proteins are generally complicated and, further, protein-specific. In this review, we collect the experimental and theoretical studies that quantify the diffusion dynamics of DNA-binding proteins and review them from the viewpoint of diffusion processes.
The mechanical model based on beads and springs, which we recently proposed to study non-specific DNA-protein interactions [J. Chem. Phys. 130, 015103 (2009)], was improved by describing proteins as sets of interconnected beads instead of single beads. In this paper, we first compare the results obtained with the updated model with those of the original one and then use it to investigate several aspects of the dynamics of DNA sampling, which could not be accounted for by the original model. These aspects include the effect on the speed of DNA sampling of the regularity and/or randomness of the…
In living cells, proteins combine 3D bulk diffusion and 1D sliding along the DNA to reach a target faster. This process is known as facilitated diffusion, and we investigate its dynamics in the physiologically relevant case of confined DNA. The confining geometry and DNA elasticity are key parameters: we find that facilitated diffusion is most efficient inside an isotropic volume, and on a flexible polymer. By considering the typical copy numbers of proteins in vivo, we show that the speedup due to sliding becomes insensitive to fine tuning of parameters, rendering facilitated diffusion a robu…
Many proteins interact with and deform double-stranded DNA in cells. Single-molecule experiments have studied the elasticity of DNA with helix-deforming proteins, including proteins that bend DNA. These experiments increase the need for theories of DNA elasticity which include helix-deforming proteins. Previous theoretical work on bent DNA has examined a long DNA molecule with many nonspecifically binding proteins. However, recent experiments used relatively short DNA molecules with a single, well-defined bend site. Here we develop a simple theoretical description of the effect of a single ben…
From the crystal structure data and using the concept of equilbrium statistical mechanics we show how to calculate the thermodynamics of protein/DNA complexes. We apply the method to the TATA-box binding protein (TBP)/TATA sequence complex. We have estimated the change in free energy and entropy for each of the base pair (bp). The local rigidity of the DNA is estimated from the curvature of the free energy. We also estimate the free energy gain of the protein due to bond formation with a particular bp. We thus figure out the bps responsible for specific binding.
The diffusion-controlled limit of reaction times for site-specific DNA-binding proteins is derived from first principles. We follow the generally accepted concept that a protein propagates via two competitive modes, a three-dimensional diffusion in space and a one-dimensional sliding along the DNA. However, our theoretical treatment of the problem is new. The accuracy of our analytical model is verified by numerical simulations. The results confirm that the unspecific binding of protein to DNA, combined with sliding, is capable to reduce the reaction times significantly.
We present Brownian dynamics simulations of the facilitated diffusion of a protein, modelled as a sphere with a binding site on its surface, along DNA, modelled as a semi-flexible polymer. We consider both the effect of DNA organisation in 3D, and of sequence heterogeneity. We find that in a network of DNA loops, as are thought to be present in bacterial DNA, the search process is very sensitive to the spatial location of the target within such loops. Therefore, specific genes might be repressed or promoted by changing the local topology of the genome. On the other hand, sequence heterogeneity…
The Histone-like Nucleoid Structuring protein (H-NS) is a nucleoid-associated protein, which is involved in both gene regulation and DNA compaction. Although it is a key player in genome organization by forming bridges between DNA duplexes, the precise structure of complexes of DNA and H-NS proteins is still not well understood. In particular, it is not clear whether the structure of DNA/H-NS complexes in the living cell is similar to that of complexes deposited on mica surfaces, which may be observed by AFM microscopy. A coarse-grained model, which helps getting more insight into this questio…
In our last paper, we have reported the direct interact between energetic ions and DNA, and its components, pointing out that damage to DNA is actually of highest biological consequence, as the integrity of DNA sequence is essential for biological function. Proteins are another kind of important biomolecules. Although much recent attention has been payed to ion irradiation initiated reaction cascades leading to DNA damage, the protein lesions induced by energetic ions remain virtually unexplored at the molecular scale (maybe because there are usually many copies of each protein, so a comparabl…
The mobility of protein is fundamental in the machinery of life. Here, we have investigated the effect of DNA binding in conjunction with DNA internal motion of the bacterial Hfq master regulator devoid of its amyloid C-terminus domain. Hfq is one of the most abundant nucleoid associated proteins that shape the bacterial chromosome and is involved in several aspects of nucleic acid metabolism. Fluorescence microscopy has been used to track a C-terminus domain lacking mutant form of Hfq on double stranded DNA, which is stretched by confinement to a rectangular nanofluidic channel. The mobility …
Complex DNA topological structures, including polymer loops, are frequently observed in biological processes when protein molecules simultaneously bind to several distant sites on DNA. However, the molecular mechanisms of formation of these systems remain not well understood. Existing theoretical studies focus only on specific interactions between protein and DNA molecules at target sequences. However, the electrostatic origin of primary protein-DNA interactions suggests that interactions of proteins with all DNA segments should be considered. Here we theoretically investigate the role of non-…
The detection of biomolecules at the single molecular level have important applications in the fields of biosensing and biomedical diagnosis. Solid state nanopore (SS-nanopore) is an effective tool to perform the single molecular detection, due to its unique properties of label-free and less sample consumption. The current SS-nanopore translocations of small biomolecules are driven by the electronic field force, thus easily influenced by the charges, shapes and sizes of the target molecules. Therefore, it remains a great challenge to control biomolecules to translocate through SS-nanopore, par…
The binding of proteins onto DNA contributes to the shaping and packaging of genome as well as to the expression of specific genetic messages. With a view to understanding the interplay between the presence of proteins and the deformation of DNA involved in such processes, we developed a new method to minimize the elastic energy of DNA fragments at the mesoscale level. Our method makes it possible to obtain the optimal pathways of protein-decorated DNA molecules for which the terminal base pairs are spatially constrained. We focus in this work on the deformations induced by selected architectu…
All known life forms are based upon a hierarchy of interwoven feedback loops, operating over a cascade of space, time and energy scales. Among the most basic loops are those connecting DNA and proteins. For example, in genetic networks, DNA genes are expressed as proteins, which may bind near the same genes and thereby control their own expression. In this molecular type of self-reference, information is mapped from the DNA sequence to the protein and back to DNA. There is a variety of dynamic DNA-protein self-reference loops, and the purpose of this remark is to discuss certain geometrical an…
The chromosomal DNA of bacteria is folded into a compact body called the nucleoid, which is composed essentially of DNA (80%), RNA (10%), and a number of different proteins (10%). These nucleoid proteins act as regulators of gene expression and influence the organization of the nucleoid by bridging, bending, or wrapping the DNA. These so-called architectural properties of nucleoid proteins are still poorly understood. For example, the reason why certain proteins compact the DNA coil in certain environments but make instead the DNA more rigid in other environments is the matter of ongoing debat…
We investigate the measurement of DNA supercoiling density ($σ$) along chromosomes using interaction frequencies between DNA and DNA-anchored clusters of proteins. Specifically, we show how the physics of DNA supercoiling leads, in bacteria, to the quantitative modeling of binding properties of ParB proteins around their centromere-like site, {\it parS}. Using this framework, we provide an upper bound for $σ$ in the {\it Escherichia coli} chromosome, consistent with plasmid values, and offer a proof of concept for a high accuracy measurement. To reach these conclusions, we revisit the problem …
In gene expression, various kinds of proteins need to bind to specific locus of DNA. It is still not clear how these proteins find their target locus. In this study, the mean first-passage time (FPT) of protein binding to its target locus on DNA chain is discussed by a chain-space coupled model. Our results show that the 1-dimensional diffusion constant has a critical value, with which the mean time spent by a protein to find its target locus is almost independent of the binding rate of protein to DNA chain and the detachment rate from DNA chain. Which implies that, the frequency of protein bi…
The structure of DNA Binding Proteins enables a strong interaction with their specific target site on DNA. However, recent single molecule experiment reported that proteins can diffuse on DNA. This suggests that the interactions between proteins and DNA play a role during the target search even far from the specific site. It is unclear how these non-specific interactions optimize the search process, and how the protein structure comes into play. Each nucleotide being negatively charged, one may think that the positive surface of DNA-BPs should electrostatically collapse onto DNA. Here we show …
In this review we focus on the idea of establishing connections between the mechanical properties of DNAligand complexes and the physical chemistry of DNA-ligand interactions. This type of connection is interesting because it opens the possibility of performing a robust characterization of such interactions by using only one experimental technique: single molecule stretching. Furthermore, it also opens new possibilities in comparing results obtained by very different approaches, in special when comparing single molecule techniques to ensemble-averaging techniques. We start the manuscript revie…
Experiments indicate that unbinding rates of proteins from DNA can depend on the concentration of proteins in nearby solution. Here we present a theory of multi-step replacement of DNA-bound proteins by solution-phase proteins. For four different kinetic scenarios we calculate the depen- dence of protein unbinding and replacement rates on solution protein concentration. We find (1) strong effects of progressive 'rezipping' of the solution-phase protein onto DNA sites liberated by 'unzipping' of the originally bound protein; (2) that a model in which solution-phase proteins bind non-specificall…
The bacterial genome is organized in a structure called the nucleoid by a variety of associated proteins. These proteins can form complexes on DNA that play a central role in various biological processes, including chromosome segregation. A prominent example is the large ParB-DNA complex, which forms an essential component of the segregation machinery in many bacteria. ChIP-Seq experiments show that ParB proteins localize around centromere-like parS sites on the DNA to which ParB binds specifically, and spreads from there over large sections of the chromosome. Recent theoretical and experiment…
Cooperativity plays an important role in the action of proteins bound to DNA. A simple, mechanical mechanism for cooperativity, in the form of a tension-mediated interaction between proteins bound to DNA at two different locations is proposed. These proteins are not in direct physical contact. DNA segments intercalating bound proteins are modeled as a Worm-Like Chain, which is free to deform in two dimensions. The tension-controlled protein-protein interaction is the consequence of two effects produced by the protein binding. The first is the introduction of a bend in the host DNA and the seco…
In bacteria, regulatory proteins search for a specific DNA binding target via "facilitated diffusion": a series of rounds of 3D diffusion in the cytoplasm, and 1D linear diffusion along the DNA contour. Using large scale Brownian dynamics simulations we find that each of these steps is affected differently by crowding proteins, which can either be bound to the DNA acting as a road block to the 1D diffusion, or freely diffusing in the cytoplasm. Macromolecular crowding can strongly affect mechanistic features such as the balance between 3D and 1D diffusion, but leads to surprising robustness of…
Here we report on the use of double-nanohole (DNH) optical tweezers as a label-free and free-solution single-molecule probe for protein-DNA interactions. Using this approach, we demonstrate the unzipping of individual 10 base pair DNA-hairpins, and quantify how tumor suppressor p53 protein delays the unzipping. From the Arrhenius behavior, we find the energy barrier to unzipping introduced by p53 to be $2\times 10^{-20}$ J, whereas cys135ser mutant p53 does not show suppression of unzipping, which gives clues to its functional inability to suppress tumor growth. This transformative approach to…
We develop revised theoretical ideas on the mechanism by which the transcription factor proteins locate their specific binding sites on DNA faster than the three-dimensional (3D) diffusion controlled rate limit. We demonstrate that the 3D-diffusion controlled rate limit can be enhanced when the protein molecule reads several possible binding stretches of the template DNA via one-dimensional (1D) diffusion upon each 3D-diffusion mediated collision or nonspecific binding event. The overall enhancement of site-specific association rate is directly proportional to the maximum possible sliding leng…
DNA end tethering through break-induced DNA--protein condensation
Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems（马克斯·普朗克复杂系统物理研究所）；Technische Universität Dresden（德累斯顿工业大学）；Biotechnology Center, Center for Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering, Technische Universität Dresden（德累斯顿工业大学生物技术中心分子与细胞生物工程中心）；Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics（马克斯·普朗克细胞生物学与遗传学研究所）；Center for Systems Biology Dresden（德累斯顿系统生物学中心）；Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life, Technische Universität Dresden（德累斯顿工业大学“生命物理学”卓越集群）
How a nano-searcher finds its nano-target is a general problem in non-equilibrium statistical physics. It becomes vital when the searcher is a damaged DNA fragment trying to find its counterpart on the intact homologous chromosome. If the two copies are paired, that intact homologous sequence serves as a template to reconstitute the damaged DNA sequence, enabling the cell to survive without genetic mutations. To succeed, the search must stop only when the perfect homology is found. The biological process that ensures such a genomic integrity is called Homologous Recombination and is promoted b…
We study a protein-DNA target search model with explicit DNA dynamics applicable to in vitro experiments. We show that the DNA dynamics plays a crucial role for the effectiveness of protein "jumps" between sites distant along the DNA contour but close in 3D space. A strongly binding protein that searches by 1D sliding and jumping alone, explores the search space less redundantly when the DNA dynamics is fast on the timescale of protein jumps than in the opposite "frozen DNA" limit. We characterize the crossover between these limits using simulations and scaling theory. We also rationalize the …
Storage and retrieval of the genetic information in cells is a dynamic process that requires the DNA to undergo dramatic structural rearrangements. DNA looping is a prominent example of such a structural rearrangement that is essential for transcriptional regulation in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and the speed of such regulations affects the fitness of individuals. Here, we examine the in vitro looping dynamics of the classic Lac repressor gene-regulatory motif. We show that both loop association and loop dissociation at the DNA-repressor junctions depend on the elastic deformation of the…
Statistical-mechanical lattice models for protein-DNA binding are well established as a method to describe complex ligand binding equilibriums measured in vitro with purified DNA and protein components. Recently, a new field of applications has opened up for this approach since it has become possible to experimentally quantify genome-wide protein occupancies in relation to the DNA sequence. In particular, the organization of the eukaryotic genome by histone proteins into a nucleoprotein complex termed chromatin has been recognized as a key parameter that controls the access of transcription fa…
Using Monte-Carlo simulations, we deconvolved the sliding and hopping kinetics of GFP-LacI proteins on elongated DNA from their experimentally observed seconds-long diffusion trajectories. Our simulations suggest the following results: (1) in each diffusion trajectory, a protein makes on average hundreds of alternating slides and hops with a mean sliding time of several tens of ms; (2) sliding dominates the root mean square displacement of fast diffusion trajectories, whereas hopping dominates slow ones; (3) flow and variations in salt concentration have limited effects on hopping kinetics, wh…
DNA shape readout is an important mechanism of target site recognition by transcription factors, in addition to the sequence readout. Several models of transcription factor-DNA binding which consider DNA shape have been developed in recent years. We present a new biophysical model of protein-DNA interaction by considering the DNA shape features, which is based on a neighbour dinucleotide dependency model BayesPI2. The parameters of the new model are restricted to a subspace spanned by the 2-mer DNA shape features, which allowing a biophysical interpretation of the new parameters as position-de…
We describe and solve a discrete persistent chain model of protein binding on DNA, involving an extra sigma_i s at a site i of the DNA. This variable takes the value 1 or 0 depending on whether the site is occupied by a protein or not. In addition, if the site is occupied by a protein, there is an extra energy cost epsilon. For small force, we obtain analytic expressions for the force-extension curve and the fraction of bound protein on the DNA.For higher forces, the model can be solved numerically to obtain force extension curves and the average fraction of bound proteins as a function of app…
The mechanism allowing a protein to search of a target sequence on DNA is currently described as an intermittent process composed of 3D diffusion in bulk and 1D diffusion along the DNA molecule. Due to the relevant charge of protein and DNA, electrostatic interaction should play a crucial role during this search. In this paper, we explicitly derive the mean field theory allowing for a description of the protein-DNA electrostatics in solution. This approach leads to a unified model of the search process, where 1D and 3D diffusion appear as a natural consequence of the diffusion on an extended i…
To characterize the thermodynamical equilibrium of DNA chains interacting with a solution of non-specific binding proteins, a Flory-Huggins free energy model was implemented. We explored the dependence on DNA and protein concentrations of the DNA collapse. For physiologically relevant values of the DNA-protein affinity, this collapse gives rise to a biphasic regime with a dense and a dilute phase; the corresponding phase diagram was computed. Using an approach based on Hamiltonian paths, we show that the dense phase has either a molten globule or a crystalline structure, depending on the DNA b…
Much of the complexity observed in gene regulation originates from cooperative protein-DNA binding. While studies of the target search of proteins for their specific binding sites on the DNA have revealed design principles for the quantitative characteristics of protein-DNA interactions, no such principles are known for the cooperative interactions between DNA-binding proteins. We consider a simple theoretical model for two interacting transcription factor (TF) species, searching for and binding to two adjacent target sites hidden in the genomic background. We study the kinetic competition of …
Gene expression and regulation rely on an apparently finely tuned set of reactions between some proteins and DNA. Such DNA-binding proteins have to find specific sequences on very long DNA molecules and they mostly do so in absence of any active process. It has been rapidly recognized that to achieve this task these proteins should be efficient at both searching (i.e. sampling fast relevant parts of DNA) and finding (i.e. recognizing the specific site). A two-mode search and variants of it have been suggested since the 70s to explain either a fast search or an efficient recognition. Combining …
Recognition and binding of specific sites on DNA by proteins is central for many cellular functions such as transcription, replication, and recombination. In the process of recognition, a protein rapidly searches for its specific site on a long DNA molecule and then strongly binds this site. Here we aim to find a mechanism that can provide both a fast search (1-10 sec) and high stability of the specific protein-DNA complex ($K_d=10^{-15}-10^{-8}$ M). Earlier studies have suggested that rapid search involves the sliding of a protein along the DNA. Here we consider sliding as a one-dimensional (…
Bacterial genomes have been shown to be partitioned into several kilobases long chromosomal domains that are topologically independent from each other, meaning that change of DNA superhelicity in one domain does not propagate to neighbors. Both in vivo and in vitro experiments have been performed to question the nature of the topological barriers at play, leading to several predictions on possible molecular actors. Here, we address the question of topological barriers using polymer models of supercoiled DNA chains. More specifically, we determine under which conditions DNA-bridging proteins ma…
We show that the simple analytical model proposed by Zhang and Marko (Phys. Rev. E 77, 031916 (2008)) to illustrate Maxwell relations for single-DNA experiments can be improved by including the zero-force entropy of a Gaussian chain. The resulting model is in excellent agreement with the discrete persistent-chain model and is in a form convenient for analyzing experimental data.
In this paper, we propose a thermodynamic mechanism for the formation of transcriptional foci via the joint agglomeration of DNA-looping proteins and protein-binding domains on DNA: The competition between the gain in protein-DNA binding free energy and the entropy loss due to DNA looping is argued to result in an effective attraction between loops. A mean-field approximation can be described analytically via a mapping to a restricted random-graph ensemble having local degree constraints and global constraints on the number of connected components. It shows the emergence of protein clusters co…
The possibility that the sliding motion of proteins on DNA is influenced by the base sequence through a base pair reading interaction, is considered. Referring to the case of the T7 RNA-polymerase, we show that the protein should follow a noise-influenced sequence-dependent motion which deviate from the standard random walk usually assumed. The general validity and the implications of the results are discussed.
This work investigates the interactions of H-NS proteins and bacterial genomic DNA through computer simulations performed with a coarse-grained model. The model was developed specifically to study the switch of H-NS proteins from the DNA-stiffening to the DNA-bridging mode, which has been observed repeatedly upon addition of multivalent cations to the buffer, but is still not understood. Unravelling the corresponding mechanism is all the more crucial, as the regulation properties of H-NS proteins, as well as other nucleoid proteins, are linked to their DNA-binding properties. The simulations r…
The emerging field of hybrid DNA - protein nanotechnology brings with it the potential for many novel materials which combine the addressability of DNA nanotechnology with versatility of protein interactions. However, the design and computational study of these hybrid structures is difficult due to the system sizes involved. To aid in the design and in silico analysis process, we introduce here a coarse-grained DNA/RNA-protein model that extends the oxDNA/oxRNA models of DNA/RNA with a coarse-grained model of proteins based on an anisotropic network model representation. Fully equipped with an…
The assembly of RecA on single-stranded DNA is measured and interpreted as a stochastic finite-state machine that is able to discriminate fine differences between sequences, a basic computational operation. RecA filaments efficiently scan DNA sequence through a cascade of random nucleation and disassembly events that is mechanistically similar to the dynamic instability of microtubules. This iterative cascade is a multistage kinetic proofreading process that amplifies minute differences, even a single base change. Our measurements suggest that this stochastic Turing-like machine can compute ce…
The Integration Host Factor is a pH-responsive protein that switches from DNA bending to DNA bridging in acidic biofilm-like conditions
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh（爱丁堡大学物理与天文学院）；School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh（爱丁堡大学生物科学学院）；School of Physics, Engineering & technology, University of York（约克大学物理、工程与技术学院）；Department of Biology, University of York（约克大学生物系）
Transcription factors are able to associate to their binding sites on DNA faster than the physical limit posed by diffusion. Such high association rates can be achieved by alternating between three-dimensional diffusion and one-dimensional sliding along the DNA chain, a mechanism dubbed Facilitated Diffusion. By studying a collection of transcription factor binding sites of Escherichia coli from the RegulonDB database and of Bacillus subtilis from DBTBS, we reveal a funnel in the binding energy landscape around the target sequences. We show that such a funnel is linked to the presence of gradi…
DNA-interacting proteins have roles multiple processes, many operating as molecular machines which undergo dynamic metastable transitions to bring about their biological function. To fully understand this molecular heterogeneity, DNA and the proteins that bind to it must ideally be interrogated at a single molecule level in their native in vivo environments, in a time-resolved manner fast to sample the molecular transitions across the free energy landscape. Progress has been made over the past decade in utilising cutting-edge tools of the physical sciences to address challenging biological que…
Many fundamental biological processes are regulated by protein-DNA complexes called {\it synaptosomes}, which possess multiple interaction sites. Despite the critical importance of synaptosomes, the mechanisms of their formation remain not well understood. Because of the multi-site nature of participating proteins, it is widely believed that their search for specific sites on DNA involves the formation and breaking of DNA loops and sliding in the looped configurations. In reality, DNA in live cells is densely covered by other biological molecules that might interfere with the formation of syna…
The in vivo free energy of looping double-stranded DNA by the lac repressor has a remarkable behavior whose origins are not fully understood. In addition to the intrinsic periodicity of the DNA double helix, the in vivo free energy has an oscillatory component of about half the helical period and oscillates asymmetrically with an amplitude significantly smaller than predicted by current theories. Here, we show that the in vivo behavior is accurately accounted for by the simultaneous presence of two distinct conformations of looped DNA. Our analysis reveals that these two conformations have dif…
The TATA-box Binding Protein (TBP) is required by all three eukaryotic RNA polymerases for the initiation of transcription from most promoters. TBP recognizes, binds to, and bends promoter sequences called ``TATA-boxes'' in the DNA. We present results from the study of individual Saccharomyces cerevisia TBPs interacting with single DNA molecules containing a TATA-box. Using video microscopy, we observed the Brownian motion of beads tethered by short surface-bound DNA. When TBP binds to and bends the DNA, the conformation of the DNA changes and the amplitude of Brownian motion of the tethered b…
Under dilute in vitro conditions transcription factors rapidly locate their target sequence on DNA by using the facilitated diffusion mechanism. However, whether this strategy of alternating between three-dimensional bulk diffusion and one-dimensional sliding along the DNA contour is still beneficial in the crowded interior of cells is highly disputed. Here we use a simple model for the bacterial genome inside the cell and present a semi-analytical model for the in vivo target search of transcription factors within the facilitated diffusion framework. Without having to resort to extensive simu…
One of the major functions of RecA protein in the cell is to bind single-stranded DNA exposed upon damage, thereby triggering the SOS repair response.We present fluorescence anisotropy measurements at the binding onset, showing enhanced DNA length discrimination induced by adenosine triphosphate consumption. Our model explains the observed DNA length sensing as an outcome of out-of equilibrium binding fluctuations, reminiscent of microtubule dynamic instability. The cascade architecture of the binding fluctuations is a generalization of the kinetic proofreading mechanism. Enhancement of precis…
It is well known that the structural deformations (stressed states) of DNA molecule play a crucial role in its biological functions including gene expression. For instance, looping in DNA (often mediated by protein binding) is a crucial step in many gene regulatory mechanisms. We use the mechanical rod model of DNA molecules to simulate its structural interactions with proteins (enzymes) during gene expression. Our rod model can simulate the nonlinear dynamics of loop and supercoil formation in DNA on long length scales. The formulation accounts for the structural stiffness of the DNA strand, …
