Characteristic length scale of electric transport properties of genomes

(De)localization and the mobility edges in a disordered double chain with long-range intrachain correlation and short-range interchain correlation

Correlation effects and phase transitions are central issues in current studies on disordered systems. In this paper, we study the electronic properties of a disordered double chain with long-range intrachain correlation and short-range interchain correlation. Based on detailed numerical calculations, finite size scaling analysis and empirical analytical calculations, we obtain a phase diagram containing rich physics due to the interplay among the disorder, short-range and long-range correlations. Besides the long-range correlation induced localization-delocalization transitions, we find both first-order and second-order quantum phase transitions on changing the short-range correlation. Interestingly, the localization may be suppressed by increasing the disorder strength in some parameter regime and the 'anti-correlation' leads to the most delocalized state. Our studies shine some light on the mechanism of the charge transport in DNA molecules, where both types of correlated disorders are present.

Charge transport in DNA molecules: Cooperative interplay between the disordered base-pair channel and the ordered backbone

Charge transport in DNA molecules has raised considerable interest because of its importance in biological processes and potential applications in nanoscale devices. A DNA molecule can be viewed as a quasi-one-dimensional system composed of stacked base pairs (AT , CG) together with backbones of sugar phosphates. Motivated by recent experimental observations on the importance of the backbone integrity, we investigate the interplay between charge transport through the ordered backbone and disordered base stacks with random sequences. By analytical and numerical calculations, we find that the coupling between the backbone and base-pair channels plays an important role in charge transport. The backbone can generate effective hopping constants well beyond the adjacent base pairs, enhancing charge transport through the base-pair channel. The corresponding enhancement of the localization length is nearly independent of the length of the DNA and increases with increasing coupling between backbone and base pair. Our model can explain qualitatively several experimental observations.

Point-mutation effects on charge-transport properties of the tumor-suppressor gene p53

We report on a theoretical study of point mutations effects on charge transfer properties in the DNA sequence of the tumor-suppressor p53 gene. On the basis of effective tight-binding models which simulate hole propagation along the DNA, a statistical analysis of mutation-induced charge transfer modifications is performed. In contrast to noncancerous mutations, mutation hot spots tend to result in significantly weaker changes of transmission properties. This suggests that charge transport could play a significant role for DNA-repairing deficiency yielding carcinogenesis.