Figure 8.

Model depicting the consecutive-fraying-at-both-ends mechanism for duplex dissociation. The colored bars represent short segments of the 21 bp DNA duplex that are either associated (green) or dissociated (red). The transparent black numbers correspond to the relative abundance of each partially dissociated species as predicted by a binomial distribution. After four consecutive fraying events, the single remaining associated (green) segment of the duplex is sufficiently frayed to undergo a final rapid dissociation step. See discussion for details. To see this figure in color, go online.