Conformational Entropy Mechanism for Periodic Motion of DNA under Constant-Field Gel Electrophoresis

Abstract

Entropic elasticity of a single charged polymer undergoing gel electrophoresis is a fundamental theme of polymer statistical physics since the discovery of “periodic” behavior in constant field gel electrophoresis (CFGE). In the present work we address the problem numerically by two steps. In the first step, we carry out Brownian dynamics (BD) simulations on CFGE by solving semi-microscopic Langevin equations of a polymer consisting of beads separated by a mean distance much smaller than the Kuhn length. Results are analyzed based on coarse-graining over the Kuhn length scale. We show the averaged elongation–contraction motion involves asymmetric V-shaped configurations whose shorter arm length depends on the field and the temperature consistently with what is expected when the BD chain is described by the freely-jointed chain (FJC) model with a suitable Kuhn length. To our knowledge, this is the first numerical confirmation of the FJC model itself from a submicroscopic description of polymer motion. The ...