Theory of Low-Frequency Vibrations in DNA Macromolecules

Abstract

To describe low-frequency dynamics of DNA macromolecules a model is developed taking into account the hydrogen bond stretching in base pairs, the backbone flexibility and intranucleoside mobility. For double-stranded DNA the normal vibrations are found and the structure of low- frequency spectrum is determined. The agreement between theory and Raman spectroscopy data for B-DNA is demonstrated. Conformational dependences of vibration spectrum during the B→A and helix→coil DNA transitions are studied. The contribution coming from low-frequency mobility to the nucleic-protein recognition processes is discussed.