Does changing the pulling direction give better insight into biomolecules?

Abstract

Single molecule manipulation techniques reveal that the mechanical resistance of a protein depends on the direction of the applied force. Using a lattice model of polymers, we show that changing the pulling direction leads to different phase diagrams. The simple model proposed here indicates that in one case the system undergoes a transition akin to the unzipping of a $\beta$ sheet, while in the other case the transition is of a shearing (slippage) nature. Our results are qualitatively similar to experimental results. This demonstrates the importance of varying the pulling direction since this may yield enhanced insights into the molecular interactions responsible for the stability of biomolecules.

RevTeX v4, 10 pages with 6 eps figures

References in corpus (5)

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• Collapse Transition of Two-Dimensional Flexible and Semiflexible Polymers
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• Effects of Eye-phase in DNA unzipping
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Cited by in corpus (17)

• Forcing Adsorption of a Tethered Polymer by Pulling
• Effects of Molecular Crowding on stretching of polymers in poor solvent
• Simulating the collapse transition of a two-dimensional semiflexible lattice polymer
• Force induced stretched state: Effects of temperature
• Manipulating a single adsorbed DNA for a critical endpoint
• Force induced melting of the constrained DNA
• Can a double stranded DNA be unzipped by pulling a single strand?: Phases of adsorbed DNA
• A self-interacting partially directed walk subject to a force
• Role of pulling direction in understanding the energy landscape of proteins
• Polymers in crowded environment under stretching force: globule-coil transitions
• Statistical mechanics of a polymer chain attached to the interface of a cone-shaped channel
• Elasticity of a DNA chain dotted with bubbles under force
• Stiffness dependence of critical exponents of semiflexible polymer chains situated on two-dimensional compact fractals
• Can re-entrance be observed in force induced transitions?
• Polymers in disordered environments
• Residual entropy in a model for the unfolding of single polymer chains
• Theta-polymers in crowded media under the stretching force