Thermal properties of a DNA denaturation with solvent interaction

In this work we study the effects of the solvent interaction on the nonlinear dynamical structure of a DNA segment, by using a time-independent perturbation approach. Considering a well-known set of values for the spring constant (k) and the Morse (solvent) potential parameters D-n and a(n) (f(s) and lambda(s)), we investigate the denaturation temperature profiles of some DNA's thermodynamical functions, such as the stretching of the hydrogen bonds, the specific heat and the entropy. Besides a sharp thermal profile behavior of these functions, we observe also that the DNA's melting temperature decreases as the solvent potential increases. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.