corner
corner
APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. E » Volume 80 » Issue 3
< Previous Article | Next Article >

Phys. Rev. E 80, 031917 (2009) [8 pages]

Unraveling DNA tori under tension

Download: PDF (267 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

C. Battle1,*, B. van den Broek2,†, M. C. Noom2, J. van Mameren2,‡, G. J. L. Wuite2, and F. C. MacKintosh2,§
1Institute for Theoretical Physics, Universiteit van Amsterdam, 1018 XE Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2Department of Physics and Astronomy and Laser Center, Vrije Universiteit, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Received 29 April 2009; published 25 September 2009

Motivated by recent experiments, we develop a model for DNA toroids under external tension. We find that tori are the equilibrium states for our model up to a critical tension, above which they become only metastable. Above this tension, we find a cascade of transitions between discrete toroid states that successively lower the winding number, until the ground state (rod) is reached. In this process, this model predicts a nearly constant force plateau as a function of extension, in agreement with experiment.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.80.031917
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevE.80.031917
PACS:
87.14.gk, 82.35.Pq, 87.15.−v, 36.20.Ey

*Present address: Drittes Physikalisches Institut, Georg-August-Universität, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.

†Present address: Leiden Institute of Physics, Leiden University, 2333 CA Leiden, The Netherlands.

‡Present address: JPK Instruments AG, Bouchestrasse 12, 12435 Berlin, Germany.

§fcm@nat.vu.nl

 
< Previous Article | Next Article >