Modern Studies of Nucleic Acid Dynamics
A special issue of Biomolecules (ISSN 2218-273X).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2026
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA play many roles in the cell as information carriers and biological catalysts. The atomic-level details obtained through analyses of meso- or large-scale properties in biologically relevant environments and interactions with other molecules provide important information on the details of biomolecular recognition and biophysical and biochemical processes. Structural biology of nucleic acids remains important for determining and evaluating the average or static structures, but only provides a portion of the relevant information, leaving out some details of how these molecules may move between or within various states. The dynamics of nucleic acids, which include thermodynamic and kinetic properties, timescales and magnitudes of motions, energetics of conformational rearrangement and equilibria, continue to provide important insights into their functions. Knowledge of these fundamental properties can potentially provide a more thorough understanding of such processes as DNA repair, RNA folding, replication, drug interactions, condensation and a variety of other phenomena.
This Special Issue aims to identify recent studies of DNA and RNA, the techniques to measure their dynamic properties and the theories to model them. Techniques utilized can include but are not limited to spectroscopy, computer modeling and prediction, and single-molecular techniques.
Prof. Dr. Gary A. Meints
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomolecules is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- nucleic acid dynamics
- DNA
- RNA
- nucleic acid energetics
- dynamics of biomolecular recognition
- timescales and magnitudes of dynamics
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