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
Home Research Vitae Publications Talks
Short list Full list
Analytical Results For The Plectonemic Response Of Supercoiled DNA
Nicolas Clauvelin, Sébastien Neukirch and Basile Audoly
Proceedings of the third International Conference on Multiscale Modeling, Freiburg (18-22 sept. 2006) pp 605--608, edited by P. Gumbsch, published by Fraunhofer IRB Verlag,
Abstract : The DNA molecule is modeled as an elastic rod with bending and twisting rigidities, subjected to external tension and twist applied at one end, the other end being clamped. We study the plectonemic equilibrium of such a rod, taking into account the impenetrability constraint. Numerical solutions of this boundary value problem have previously shown that purely elastic models can reproduce the supercoiling response of the DNA molecule. Using a variational approach, we derive analytical formulae for the elastic response of the filament, and extend former numerical results.
Key words : -
download the pre-print version : PDF
download the journal version PDF