Techniques for enhancing computation of DNA curvature molecules

An automated algorithm is presented to determine the DNA molecule intrinsic curvature profiles and the molecular spatial orientations in atomic force microscope images. The curvature is composed by static and dynamic contributions. The former is the intrinsic curvature, a function of the DNA nucleotide sequence, while the latter is due to thermal fluctuations. This algorithm allows to reconstruct the intrinsic curvature profile excluding the thermal contribution. The automated algorithm reconstructs the intrinsic curvature profile with a mean square error of 3.812/spl middot/ 10/sup -4/ rads over a profile with a central peak value of 0.196 rads, and 6.1/spl middot/10/sup -3/ rads over a curvature profile with two symmetric peaks of about 0.08 rads. Moreover, it correctly detects the location of the peaks in the molecules with a deviation of about 1% of molecule length.