Replicants are like any other machine Trying to model DNA replication

>> YOUR LINK HERE: ___ http://youtube.com/watch?v=7Png4-WSv4I

This is a first attempt at obtaining duplication of a DNA molecule, in a very simplified model. The real process is actually helped by various enzymes, such as DNA polymerase, that move nucleotides around. This mechanism is absent from the present model, which rather relies on a combination of random effects and rules for recombination. • The initial state is chosen such that a strand of DNA forms with one half of the nucleotides, while the other half are not allowed to react with each other. After a while, small particles representing enzymes are released (they are generated randomly near the right border), that break the connection between base pairs, thereby trying to separate the strands. The second half of the nucleotides can then recombine with the bases of the two strands, which would duplicate the DNA molecule once the process is completed. • Each T-shaped molecule in this simulation represents a nucleotide, consisting of a phosphate-deoxyribose backbone, and one nucleic base among adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C). Atoms belonging to different molecules interact via a Lennard-Jones potential, while atoms within the same molecule interact with a stiff harmonic potential. Whenever two ends of T-bars come close to each other, they react to become attached. In a similar way, adenine and thymine can attach to each other, as well as cytosine and guanine. • Each reacting extremity of a nucleotide consists of two atoms. This provides more rigidity to the larger molecules formed after reactions. The left and right ends of each backbone are considered as being different, and can only attach to a backbone end of the other type. This is to avoid that base pairs point in different directions (a problem that is specific to the 2D nature of this simulation). The temperature is slowly increased during the simulation. This is because otherwise the system tends to freeze , probably due to energy being absorbed in small vibrations within the molecules. Coulomb-like interactions between base pairs and backbone ends have been added, which are attractive for pairs that can combine, and repulsive otherwise. • The particles' color hue depends on their type. The base types appear in the following colors: A red, T yellow, C green, G cyan. The enzymes, represented by yellow triangles, interact via a weak electrostatic repulsion, and are attracted by the bases. When an enzyme approaches a pair of bases, these detach, and are not allowed to attach again to each other. • To help the process of duplication, without the use of other enzymes, a number of artificial rules have been added. The main rule is that except for the initial DNA formation, only reactions between the two different families of nucleotides are allowed. • To save on computation time, particles are placed into a hash grid , each cell of which contains between 3 and 10 particles. Then only the influence of other particles in the same or neighboring cells is taken into account for each particle. • The temperature is controlled by a thermostat, implemented here with the Nosé-Hoover-Langevin algorithm introduced by Ben Leimkuhler, Emad Noorizadeh and Florian Theil, see reference below. The idea of the algorithm is to couple the momenta of the system to a single random process, which fluctuates around a temperature-dependent mean value. Lower temperatures lead to lower mean values. • Render time: 35 minutes 51 seconds • Compression: crf 23 • Color scheme: Turbo, by Anton Mikhailov • https://gist.github.com/mikhailov-wor... • Music: Apollo The Wicked by DJ Jeremy Korpas‪@JeremyKorpas‬ • Reference: Leimkuhler, B., Noorizadeh, E. Theil, F. A Gentle Stochastic Thermostat for Molecular Dynamics. J Stat Phys 135, 261–277 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-009-97... • http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/~theil... • Current version of the C code used to make these animations: • https://github.com/nilsberglund-orlea... • https://www.idpoisson.fr/berglund/sof... • Some outreach articles on mathematics: • https://images.math.cnrs.fr/_Berglund... • (in French, some with a Spanish translation) • #molecular_dynamics #dna

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