Sébastien Neukirch
Institut Jean le Rond d'Alembert
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Sorbonne Université, Campus Pierre et Marie Curie
Paris, Francetel: +33 1 44 27 72 61
e-mail: sebastien.neukirch (-atat-) upmc.fr
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Mechanical Response of Plectonemic DNA: An Analytical Solution
Nicolas Clauvelin, Basile Audoly, and Sébastien Neukirch
Macromolecules, 41 (2008) 4479--4483
Abstract : We consider an elastic rod model for twisted DNA in the plectonemic regime. The molecule is treated as an impenetrable tube with an effective, adjustable radius. The model is solved analytically, and we derive formulas for the contact pressure, twisting moment, and geometrical parameters of the supercoiled region. We apply our model to magnetic tweezer experiments of a DNA molecule subjected to a tensile force and a torque and extract mechanical and geometrical quantities from the linear part of the experimental response curve. These reconstructed values are derived in a self-contained manner and are found to be consistent with those available in the literature.
doi: 10.1021/ma702713x
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