Trajectories of the DNA kinks in the sequences containing CDS regions

Abstract

Coding regions (CDS) being an integral part of any gene sequence, play an important role in the process of transcription. One of the tasks associated with the CDS regions, consists in the modeling of the passage of transcription bubbles named also open states or DNA kinks through the coding regions. In this paper, we present a simple and convenient approach to the modeling of the passage. It includes the calculation of the energy profile of the sequence and reducing the initial task to the modeling of the movement of a quasi particle in the field with this energy profile. To illustrate the method, we present the results of the calculations of the trajectories of the DNA kinks moving in the sequence of gene coding interferon alpha 17 (IFNA17) that consists of the three regions: the coding region and the two regions with unknown functional properties. To analyze the kink dynamics, we apply approximation where the DNA parameters are being averaged separately over each of the three regions. In the absences of dissipation, the total kink energy is constant. At the same time the kink velocity is constant only inside each of the regions. In the presence of dissipation, the total kink energy decreases. It is shown that the greater the total initial energy of the kink, the faster the energy decrease. It is suggested that the proposed approach could be useful in finding the ways to govern the movement of transcription bubbles at the first stage of the process of transcription.