Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan ; Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan ; Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Biomicrofluidics. 2013 Oct 22;7(5):54119. doi: 10.1063/1.4826157. eCollection 2013.
We investigate the fluctuation-relaxation dynamics of entropically restricted DNA molecules in square nanochannels ranging from 0.09 to 19.9 times the persistence length. In nanochannels smaller than the persistence length, the chain relaxation time is found to have cubic dependence on the channel size. It is found that the effective polymer width significantly alter the chain conformation and relaxation time in strong confinement. For thinner chains, looped chain configurations are found in channels with height comparable to the persistence length, with very slow relaxation compared to un-looped chains. Larger effective chain widths inhibit the formation of hairpin loops.
我们研究了熵限制的 DNA 分子在方纳米通道中的涨落松弛动力学,纳米通道的大小范围从 0.09 倍到 19.9 倍的 persistence length。在小于 persistence length 的纳米通道中,发现链松弛时间与通道大小呈立方关系。研究发现,有效聚合物宽度在强约束下显著改变链构象和松弛时间。对于较薄的链,在高度与 persistence length 相当的通道中发现了环状链构型,与未缠绕链相比,其松弛速度非常慢。较大的有效链宽度抑制了发夹环的形成。