An intrinsic temporal dimension of DNA: the new concept of time-island

In this article, we investigate the propagation of an intrinsic (not environmental) perturbation along the DNA chain. In particular, the conditions were sought so that a perturbation, in addition to moving in a coherent and complete manner, remained enclosed within a DNA fragment for a li...

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Main Author: Giovanni Villani
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Academia.edu Journals 2023-05-01
Series:Academia Biology
Online Access:https://www.academia.edu/101979960/An_intrinsic_temporal_dimension_of_DNA_the_new_concept_of_time_island
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author Giovanni Villani
author_facet Giovanni Villani
author_sort Giovanni Villani
collection DOAJ
description In this article, we investigate the propagation of an intrinsic (not environmental) perturbation along the DNA chain. In particular, the conditions were sought so that a perturbation, in addition to moving in a coherent and complete manner, remained enclosed within a DNA fragment for a life time similar to those of biological interest of hundreds of picoseconds or in the time scale of nanoseconds. The conditions of closure of these pieces of DNA and the conditions of prolongation of the life time of the perturbation have allowed us to introduce the concept of time-island for the base-pairs sequences with these characteristics. The amount of such time-islands in human chromosomes and their coding parts has been calculated, and their uneven distribution has been highlighted. Finally, we study pieces of DNA made up of numerous replicas, as in the Huntington’s disease. These systems with a number of replicas of the tens of units are, in fact, time-islands, albeit different from the simple ones already studied. By increasing the number of replicas, however, these time-islands tend to disappear because the coherence of the movement of the perturbation within them is lost. In this perspective, Huntington’s disease, and other similar diseases, could be interpreted as the loss of a time-island.
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spelling doaj-art-829cb0fe61c84dc98e8e11b9a257908c2025-02-10T23:14:21ZengAcademia.edu JournalsAcademia Biology2837-40102023-05-011210.20935/AcadBiol6089An intrinsic temporal dimension of DNA: the new concept of time-islandGiovanni Villani0Istituto di Chimica dei Composti OrganoMetallici (UOS Pisa) – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Area della Ricerca di Pisa, Via G Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy In this article, we investigate the propagation of an intrinsic (not environmental) perturbation along the DNA chain. In particular, the conditions were sought so that a perturbation, in addition to moving in a coherent and complete manner, remained enclosed within a DNA fragment for a life time similar to those of biological interest of hundreds of picoseconds or in the time scale of nanoseconds. The conditions of closure of these pieces of DNA and the conditions of prolongation of the life time of the perturbation have allowed us to introduce the concept of time-island for the base-pairs sequences with these characteristics. The amount of such time-islands in human chromosomes and their coding parts has been calculated, and their uneven distribution has been highlighted. Finally, we study pieces of DNA made up of numerous replicas, as in the Huntington’s disease. These systems with a number of replicas of the tens of units are, in fact, time-islands, albeit different from the simple ones already studied. By increasing the number of replicas, however, these time-islands tend to disappear because the coherence of the movement of the perturbation within them is lost. In this perspective, Huntington’s disease, and other similar diseases, could be interpreted as the loss of a time-island.https://www.academia.edu/101979960/An_intrinsic_temporal_dimension_of_DNA_the_new_concept_of_time_island
spellingShingle Giovanni Villani
An intrinsic temporal dimension of DNA: the new concept of time-island
Academia Biology
title An intrinsic temporal dimension of DNA: the new concept of time-island
title_full An intrinsic temporal dimension of DNA: the new concept of time-island
title_fullStr An intrinsic temporal dimension of DNA: the new concept of time-island
title_full_unstemmed An intrinsic temporal dimension of DNA: the new concept of time-island
title_short An intrinsic temporal dimension of DNA: the new concept of time-island
title_sort intrinsic temporal dimension of dna the new concept of time island
url https://www.academia.edu/101979960/An_intrinsic_temporal_dimension_of_DNA_the_new_concept_of_time_island
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