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In this work we investigated contacts between proteins and nucleic acids by Voronoi-Delaunay tessellation. About one third of all contacts are contacts between nucleotides and positively charged residues Arg and Lys, 32,3 %. Ser and Thr together take part in 15 % of contacts. Asn forms 6 % of contacts, as well as Gly. Contribution of each other residue type does not exceed 5 %. Statistically significant are contacts Asp-G, Trp-C, Glu-C, Asp-C and His-T. General mechanism of charged residues participation in specific protein-DNA interac-tions is suggested.

The article was retracted on May 3, 2022 at the request of the authors due to the fact that the data included in the article were published in the article by Nechipurenko Y.D., Golovkin M.V., Nechipurenko D.Yu., Ilyicheva I.A., Panchenko L. .A., Polozov R.V., Grokhovsky S.L. Kharakternye osobennosti rasshchepleniya DNK ul'trazvukom [Characteristic features of DNA cleavage by ultrasound]. Journal of Structural Chemistry, 2009, volume 50, number 5, pages 1045-1052 (in Russian).

The paper presents results that confirm the ability to control the movement of the kink of the modified sine-Gordon equation with variable external force parameters. Three types of external influences have been considered: permanent action, periodic action with a constant frequency and a frequency-modulated periodic exposure. The dependences of the position and velocity of the kink on time for various values of the parameters of external influence were obtained using the method of McLaughlin and Scott. It is shown that by changing the settings, one can adjust the velocity and direction of movement of the kink.

Present work is dedicated to systematic study of equilibrium configurations of gold and silver clusters in size from 2 to 9 atoms. To the lowest energy configurations is performed calculation of electronic excitation spectra. All calculations are carried out within the framework of density functional theory (DFT) using the hybrid B3LYP functional and ECP LANL2DZ. Based on the analysis of the received electronic excitation spectra we try to confirm the assumption that small gold and silver clusters, capable of luminescence can be produced only in the presence of a stabilizing template. The authors show that without stabilization in the solution formed “flat” and “spherical” configuration whose spectra do not correspond to the experimental luminescence excitation spectra for DNA cluster complexes.

This study analyzes the abundance of mononucleotide tracts of different length in 342 eubacterial and 69 archaeal chromosomes. Despite the fact that the amount of analyzed repeats depends on nucleotide content, the predominance of poly(dA)_n- and poly(dT)_n-tracts on poly(dG)_n- and poly(dC)_n-tracts was found in 301 chromosomes (73 % of events), including 90 GC-rich chromosomes. In natural DNAs amount of A/T-tracts usually appeared to be two-fold higher than in randomized nucleotide sequences with the same AT/GC-content and length. Possible reasons of this asymmetry in distribution are discussed.

Charge transfer in DNA is simulated by a discrete Holstein model «quantum particle + classical site chain + interaction». Thermostat temperature is taken into account as stochastic force, which acts on classical sites (Langevin equation). Thus dynamics of charge migration along the chain is described by ODE system with stochastic right-hand side. To integrate the system numerically, algorithms of order 1 or 2 are usually applied. We developed «mixed» algorithm having 4th order of accuracy for fast «quantum» variables (note that in quantum subsystem the condition «sum of probabilities of charge being on site is time-constant» must be held), and 2nd order for slow classical variables, which are affecting by stochastic force. The algorithm allows us to calculate trajectories on longer time intervals as compared to standard algorithms. Model calculations of polaron disruption in homogeneous chain caused by temperature fluctuations are given as an example.

The repressor is the first genetic regulatory network in synthetic biology, which was artificially constructed in 2000. It is a closed network of three genetic elements — $lacI$, $\lambda cI$ and $tetR$, — which have a natural origin, but are not found in nature in such a combination. The promoter of each of the three genes controls the next cistron via the negative feedback, suppressing the expression of the neighboring gene. In this paper, the nonlinear dynamics of a modified repressilator, which has time delays in all parts of the regulatory network, has been studied for the first time. Delay can be both natural, i.e. arises during the transcription/translation of genes due to the multistage nature of these processes, and artificial, i.e. specially to be introduced into the work of the regulatory network using synthetic biology technologies. It is assumed that the regulation is carried out by proteins being in a dimeric form. The considered repressilator has two more important modifications: the location on the same plasmid of the gene $gfp$, which codes for the fluorescent protein, and also the presence in the system of a DNA sponge. In the paper, the nonlinear dynamics has been considered within the framework of the deterministic description. By applying the method of decomposition into fast and slow motions, the set of nonlinear differential equations with delay on a slow manifold has been obtained. It is shown that there exists a single equilibrium state which loses its stability in an oscillatory manner at certain values of the control parameters. For a symmetric repressilator, in which all three genes are identical, an analytical solution for the neutral Andronov–Hopf bifurcation curve has been obtained. For the general case of an asymmetric repressilator, neutral curves are found numerically. It is shown that the asymmetric repressor generally is more stable, since the system is oriented to the behavior of the most stable element in the network. Nonlinear dynamic regimes arising in a repressilator with increase of the parameters are studied in detail. It was found that there exists a limit cycle corresponding to relaxation oscillations of protein concentrations. In addition to the limit cycle, we found the slow manifold not associated with above cycle. This is the long-lived transitional regime, which reflects the process of long-term synchronization of pulsations in the work of individual genes. The obtained results are compared with the experimental data known from the literature. The place of the model proposed in the present work among other theoretical models of the repressilator is discussed.

The development of structured molecular systems based on a nucleic acid framework takes into account the ability of single-stranded DNA to form a stable double-stranded structure due to stacking interactions and hydrogen bonds of complementary pairs of nucleotides. To increase the stability of the DNA double helix and to expand the temperature range in the hybridization protocols, it was proposed to use more stable metal-mediated complexes of nucleotide pairs as an alternative to Watson-Crick hydrogen bonds. One of the most frequently considered options is the use of silver ions to stabilize a pair of cytosines from opposite DNA strands. Silver ions specifically bind to N3 cytosines along the helix axis to form, as is believed, a strong N3–Ag⁺–N3 bond, relative to which, two rotational isomers, the cis- and trans-configurations of C–Ag⁺–C can be formed. In present work, a theoretical study and a comparative analysis of the free energy profile of the dissociation of two С–Ag⁺–C isomers were carried out using the combined method of molecular mechanics and quantum chemistry (QM/MM). As a result, it was shown that the cis-configuration is more favorable in energy than the trans- for a single pair of cytosines, and the geometry of the global minimum at free energy profile for both isomers differs from the equilibrium geometries obtained previously by quantum chemistry methods. Apparently, the silver ion stabilization model of the DNA duplex should take into account not only the direct binding of silver ions to cytosines, but also the presence of related factors, such as stacking interaction in extended DNA, interplanar hydrogen bonds, and metallophilic interaction of neighboring silver ions.

This study is devoted to a comparative study of the conformational stability of the DNA aptamer to adenosine derivatives in a free state and in a complex with AMP and HMP molecules by use of molecular dynamics. It was shown that, in the free state, the structure of the inner loop of the DNA aptamer hairpin, due to the special packing of guanines, closes the cavity of the binding site from external ligands, and the condition for the specific selection of adenosine derivatives in comparison with guanine arises. New stabilization factors of the AMP and aptamer complex have been revealed — hydrogen bonds between the O3’ of the ribose atom of the ligands with the oxygen of the nearest phosphate group. It was also shown that guanines, which form hydrogen bonds with AMP within the binding site, are additionally stabilized by hydrogen bonds with phosphate groups opposing along the chain. The proposed scheme is in qualitative agreement with the experimental data, according to which the aptamer in solution acquires a hairpin conformation with the formation of a binding site, while the formed site exhibits high specificity when interacting only with adenosine derivatives.

Database to store, search and retrieve DNA physical properties profiles has been developed and its use for analysis of E. coli promoters has been demonstrated. Unique feature of the database is in its ability to handle whole profile as single internal object type in a way similar to integers or character strings. To demonstrate utility of such database it was populated with data of 1227 known promoters, their nucleotide sequence, profile of electrostatic potential, transcription factor binding sites. Each promoter is also connected to all genes, whose transcription is controlled by that promoter. Content of the database is available for search via web interface. Source code of profile datatype and library to work with it from R/Bioconductor are available from the internet, dump of the database is available from authors by request.