Table 1.
Experimental and Theoretical Overstretching Forces, Together with Energy and Length Values of the Theoretical Description
|
Fp |
Ft |
Eb |
Ess |
Eds |
Δl |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (pN) | (pN) | (kBT/bp) | (kBT/nt) | (kBT/bp) | (nm/nt) | |
| dsDNA | 57.6 ± 1.8 | 48.2 | 2.30 | 1.08 | 0.24 | 0.273 |
| dsRNA | 55.2 ± 1.8 | – | 3.33 | – | – | – |
| RNA/DNA | 60.0 ± 1.8 | 48.7 | 2.38 | 1.09 | 0.18 | 0.284 |
| DNA/RNA | 64.8 ± 1.8 | 53.7 | 2.38 | 0.99 | 0.24 | 0.245 |
Experimental plateau values Fp are obtained by averaging 20–50 measured overstretching plateaus for each duplex type. All these measurements were performed under the experimental conditions of Fig. 2. The calculated transition forces Ft verify E(Ft) = 0, where E(F) is defined by Eq. 1. The binding energies Eb are taken from the literature (29, 30, 31). The elastic energies Ess and Eds and the length difference Δl = lss − lds are evaluated at force Ft. There are no Ft, Ess, Eds, and Δl values for dsRNA because peeling is not theoretically predicted for dsRNA.