Speaker
Dr
Josep Maria Huguet
(Universitat de Barcelona)
Description
We have recently developed a methodology to infer the free
energy of hybridization of DNA with a single molecule
technique (Huguet et al., PNAS 107, 15431 (2010)). It
consists in unzipping a molecule of DNA of a few thousands
of base pairs with optical tweezers. These pulling
experiments provide a force vs. distance curve that is
analyzed to obtain the free energy of formation of the
Nearest-Neighbor motifs. However, this technique is only
valid for quasistatic pulling experiments. We have extended
our technique to out of equilibrium experiments, in which
the force vs. distance curves are not quasistatic anymore.
So we are able to analyze the data obtained from pulling
experiments on RNA, which exhibits much more hysteresis than
DNA. The main advantage of this technique is that it
circumvents the problems of bulk experiments such as
aggregation of molecules or self-catalization of
biomolecules at certain salt concentrations or pH. The
results pave the way to establish the single-molecule
unzipping experiments as a reliable technique to extract the
free energy of formation of the motifs of biomolecules.
Primary author
Dr
Josep Maria Huguet
(Universitat de Barcelona)
