Optimization of hydrogen bonds for combined DNA/collagen complex

Many natural and biological systems including collagen and DNA polymers are formed by a process of molecular self-assembly. In this paper, we developed two novel structural models and built heterogeneous DNA/collagen complexes through a preferable arrangement of multiple hydrogen bonds (H-bonds) between DNA and collagen molecules. The simulation results based on three sets of criteria indicate that one of the models with five collagen molecules, which are positioned around each strand of DNA molecules emerged to form a suitable polymer complex with the maximum number of H-bonds. Our predictions quantitatively validated and agreed with the molecular structure reported by Mrevlishvili and Svintradze [2005. Int. J. Biol. Macromol. 36, 324–326].