Strong deformations of DNA: Effect on the persistence length

Abstract

Extreme deformations of the DNA double helix attracted a lot of attention during the past decades. Particularly, the determination of the persistence length of DNA with extreme local disruptions, or kinks, has become a crucial problem in the studies of many important biological processes. In this paper we review an approach to calculate the persistence length of the double helix by taking into account the formation of kinks of arbitrary configuration. The reviewed approach improves the Kratky--Porod model to determine the type and nature of kinks that occur in the double helix, by measuring a reduction of the persistence length of the kinkable DNA.