Melting of Branched RNA Molecules

Thumbnail Image

Files

fac_BundschuhR_PhysicalReviewLetters_2008_100_14.pdf (276.46 KB)

Date

2008-04-07

Authors

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

American Physical Society

Research Projects

Organizational Units

Journal Issue

Abstract

In this Letter we show that the melting thermodynamics of RNA molecules is very sensitive to the branching geometry. We find that, when pairing interactions are described by a Gō model, unbranched RNA molecules with a linear geometry melt via a conventional continuous phase transition with classical exponents while RNA molecules with the branching geometry of a Cayley tree, with coordination number three, have a free energy that shows no thermodynamic singularity within numerical precision. Nevertheless, we provide an analytical proof that the free energy does have a mathematical singularity at the stability limit of the ordered structure. The correlation length appears to diverge but only on the high-temperature side of this singularity.

Description

Keywords

Citation

Ralf Bundschuh, Robijn Bruinsma, "Melting of Branched RNA Molecules," Physical Review Letters 100, no. 14 (2008), doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.148101

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/1811/48018

Collections

Ohio State University Research and Scholarship