Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Biophysics

Melting the double helix

The melting temperatures of the base-pair sequences in DNA are difficult to predict. But applying statistical physics to the problem has created an 'index' that well represents the molecule's thermal properties.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Purchase on Springer Link

Instant access to full article PDF

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The melting of DNA.

References

  1. Poland, D. & Scheraga, H. A. J. Chem. Phys. 45, 1456–1463; 1464–1469 (1966).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Weber, G. et al. Nature Phys. 2, 55–59 (2006).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Kafri, Y., Mukamel, D. & Peliti, L. Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 4988–4991 (2000).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Peyrard, M. Nonlinearity 17, R1–R40 (2004).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Choi, C. H. et al. Nucleic Acid Res. 32, 1584–1590 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. van Erp, T. S., Cuesta-Lopez, S., Hagmann, J.-G. & Peyrard, M. Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 218104 (2005).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Peyrard, M. Melting the double helix. Nature Phys 2, 13–14 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys197

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys197

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing