On the displacement of cooperative transitions of linear biopolymers by an electric field

A basic theory for equilibrium properties of cooperative transitions (particularly helix–coil transformations) of sufficiently long linear biopolymers under the influence of an electric field is developed. General relations for the calculation of the distribution of uninterrupted sequences of elementary subunit states (e.g., helical fragments) as well as the overall degree of transition θ are given. Strong cooperativity is found to permit simplifications. It is shown that only in this case can a practically significant field effect be expected. Numerical results are presented for a special example of experimental interest.