Betterton M D, Jülicher Frank
Insitut Curie, Physico-chimie Curie, UMR 168, 26 rue d'Ulm, 75248 Paris Cedex 05, France.
Phys Rev Lett. 2003 Dec 19;91(25):258103. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.258103. Epub 2003 Dec 18.
We study the unwinding of DNA by helicase proteins as a representative system in which a motor protein interacts with a mobile obstacle. In our discrete model, the interaction between the helicase and the DNA fork is characterized by an interaction potential. For the case of a hard-wall potential, the helicase opens the DNA by rectifying thermal fluctuations which spontaneously open base pairs. A potential with nonzero range describes the destabilization of the double strand by the enzymatic action of the helicase. We derive solutions for the opening speed as a function of the potential shape and relate our results to experiments on helicase motion.