Biophysical Journal 67: 2448-2453 (1994)
© 1994 the Biophysical Society

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Local modes in a DNA polymer with hydrogen bond defect.

Department of Physics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907.

ABSTRACT

Vibrations of a homopolymer DNA with localized hydrogen bond defects have been examined using the recently developed decaying mode theory for long-chain polymers with local structural defects. For a poly(dA)-poly(dT) homopolymer having perturbed hydrogen bonds in one base pair, a localized mode at 63.2 cm-1 has been found. This mode has a very nearly pure H-bond stretch or "breathing" character, although the backbones do not separate. This agrees in frequency with a similar result found by other authors using a different approach. We search the full microwave frequency range for other local modes for several models of weakened H bonds. Besides the local mode with breathing characteristics, local modes with other characteristic motions were found, but only for asymmetrically perturbed bonds. We find in general that local modes are not very robust, requiring quite specific, narrow ranges in parameter space. They are also not abundant, there being only three in our most prolific model.