Direct comparison of theoretical and experimental melting profiles for RF II phiX174 DNA.

The determination by Sanger et al. of the comple nucleotide sequence for phiX174 DNA has made it possible for the first time to compare directly theoretical and experimental DNA melting profiles. The comparison shows that the theory predicts the observed shape of the differential melting curve surprisingly well. Calculation of the denaturation maps allows the peaks on the curve to be correlated with cooperative melting out of concrete regions on the sequence of nucleotides.