Nonlinear excitations can drastically change the conformation of macromolecular chains causing their bending and folding dynamics. Is it an alternative mechanism for functioning of molecular motors?

Abstract: We propose a simple phenomenological model for describing the conformational dynamics of biopolymers via the nonlinearity-induced buckling and collapse instability. We describe the buckling instability analytically, and then demonstrate its role in the folding dynamics of macromolecules through the three-dimensional numerical simulations of long semiflexible chains.

Keywords: davydovs soliton; dna; oscillators; breathers; curvature; chain

Copyright © by the respective publisher. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the publisher.