Jim Bashford
University of Tasmania, Hobart
Monday, December 19th
Seminar Room, First Floor, Physics, University of Adelaide
On mesoscale modelling of DNA-protein interactions
Interactions between DNA and protein molecules are some of the most fundamental aspects of living systems. In particular DNA replication and transcription are dependent upon highly localised, sequence-specific melting of the double helix. In this talk I will describe how a simple model of the DNA helix-coil transition can be modified to mimic deformations associated with RNA polymerase-DNA complexes. The hypothesis that proteins bind preferentially to DNA sequences which are most amenable to deformation is tested for viral and bacterial genome sequences. A strong correlation is found between A+T content and regions of regulatory significance including: upstream activating, promoter binding and translation start sites. Finally I will comment on potential applications for the work in molecular biology and bioinformatics.