MODELING DNA THERMAL DENATURATION AT THE MESOSCOPIC LEVEL

In this paper a mesoscopic approach is proposed to describe the process of breaking of hydrogen bonds during the DNA thermal denaturation, also known as DNA melting. A system of integro-dierential equations describ- ing the dynamic of the variable which characterizes the opening of the base pairs is proposed. In the derivation of the model non linear eects arising from the collective behavior, namely the interactions, of base pairs are taken into account. Solutions of the mesoscopic model show signicative analogies with the experimental S-shaped curves describing the fraction of broken bonds as a function of temperature at the macroscopic level, althought we instead simu- late the variation in time. With this respect a research perspective connecting the theoretical results to the experimental one is proposed.