| Unraveling DNA tori under tension (2009) | |||||||||
Abstract | |||||||||
| 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 metstable. Above this tension, we find a cascade of transitions between discrete toroid states that successively lowers 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.. Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures | |||||||||
Publication details | |||||||||
| |||||||||