New types of solitonic excitations in a nonlinear helicoidal model of DNA and their biological significance

Abstract

A previously unexplored type of solitons in helicoidal nonlinear model for DNA is studied. A twist soliton represents a localized overtwist of DNA double helix propagating along with compression of hydrogen bonds between base pairs. Such solitons can be analytically described within the framework of Korteweg-de Vries equation