Why a Particle Physicist is Interested in DNA Branch Migration

Abstract

We describe an explicitly discrete model of the process of DNA branch migration. The model matches the existing data well, but we find that branch migration along long strands of DNA ($N\text{simge}40$~bp) is also well modeled by continuum diffusion. The discrete model is still useful for guiding future experiments.

Comments: Talk presented at LATTICE96(theoretical developments); 3 pages, TeXsis w/ LAT96.txs (available from ftp://lifshitz.ph.utexas.edu/texsis/styles/LAT96.txs and will be a part of the next Elsevier.txs) and TXSdcol.tex