OPTIMIZED TECHNIQUE FOR DNA STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES DISCOVERING

An automated algorithm is presented to determine the DNA molecule intrinsic curvature profiles and the molecular spatial orientations in Atomic Force Microscope images. The curvature is composed by static and dynamic contributions. The former is the intrinsic curvature, a function of the DNA nucleotide sequence, while the latter is due to thermal fluctuations. This algorithm allows to reconstruct the intrinsic curvature profile excluding the thermal contribution. The DNA intrinsic curvature profile is computed in consequence of the detection of the correct spatial orientation of the molecules on the AFM substrate following the DNA deposition process. To discover the correct molecular orientations, we propose a fast heuristic orientation finding algorithm, that modifies one DNA molecular orientation at a time with linear-time heuristic transitions.