Abstract
Recent single molecule pulling experiments on DNA unzipping have revealed a heavy-tailed rupture force distribution, indicating dynamic disorder. Here we present a theoretical framework based on a generalized Langevin equation (GLE) with fractional Gaussian noise (fGn) and power-law memory kernel to study the kinetics of DNA unzipping to address the effects of dynamic disorder on barrier-crossing kinetics under external pulling force. Such a GLE-fGn strategy is associated with the slow conformational fluctuations of macromolecules. By using the Kramers rate theory, we have obtained analytical formulae for the time-dependent rate coefficient k ( t , F ), and the distribution of rupture force p ( F ) which demonstrates a fat tail at high force as functions of time t and force F . In addition, through fitting our results to data from single molecule pulling experiments on DNA unzipping, we estimate the kinetic parameters and qualify the extent of disorder. Our work provides a plausible interpretation for the evidence of dynamic disorder in force-induced DNA unzipping, compared to two other models based on Bell model and Langevin equation (LE) approach.
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