Dynamics of macromolecules and nuclear magnetic relaxation: Application of mode-coupling diffusion theory to DNA, proteins and their complexes

A mode-coupling approach has been used to solve the Smoluchowski diffusion equation describing the correlation functions relevant in nuclear magnetic relaxation experiments on biological molecules like protein and DNA. A good reproduction of relaxation patterns for molecules that are fluctuating about three-dimensional structures imposed by secondary motives has been found. Important differences can be explained with the poor statistics collected by numerical simulations that do not contain fluctuations contributing to rates in the ns time-scale, therefore comparable with rotational rates.