Denaturation and renaturation of DNA. II. Possible use of synthetic periodic copolymers to establish model and parameters

A detailed comparison of the various models used in the literature to calculate the melting curve of DNA molecules is made. It is shown that basically all the models are identical. The form developed earlier by the authors has been extended to include the dependence of the correlation parameter on the type and the orientation of the nearest neighbor bonds. A rather exhaustive theoretical study of the metling curves for the synthetic polydeoxyribose copolymers is made. A comparison of these results with the suggested experimental results obtained will enable us to decide on a reliable model which could be used to determine the melting curve if the sequence of the bonds is given. A preliminary discussion of a very general model which we will call a “bubble model” is given.