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Structural Studies Of Biopolymers Using Computer Simulations, Optical And Magnetic Spectroscopy, Subhasish Chatterjee

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Biopolymers are essential components of numerous natural and synthetic macromolecular assemblies. In the present study, the structural properties of biopolymers ranging from fungal melanins to synthetic nucleic acids were investigated using spectroscopic methods and theoretical modeling. (1) Computational modeling and molecular dynamics simulations were used to study the structural properties of a short single-stranded (ss) DNA. The dependence of the conformational stability and flexibility of the ssDNA on the thermodynamic conditions of the system was demonstrated. (2) Time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy involving an organic donor-quencher pair was utilized to study the conformational properties of Y-shaped DNA. Results highlighted the different distances …