Dynamic supercoiling bifurcations of growing elastic filaments (Q1432922)

The authors study in detail Mendelson's blocked rotation mechanism of supercoiling in a growing closed loop, and focus on the formation of the initial braid. While not yet explaining the microscopic physical origin of the coiling instability, they elucidate the rich dynamics that occurs when growth competet with blocked rotation, and thereby help constrain more detailed theories. The authors assume that the bacterial filaments can be treated as perfectly elastic and that the growth rates are uniform and independent of stress. They managed to draw some general conclusions from their model, and use their results to suggest new mechanisms for pattern formation in the presence of biological growth. The other major conclusion of this paper is the dynamic nature of pattern selection. For large parameters the authors show that the plectonemes remain once growth ceases, and are qualitatively similar to minimizers of the elastic energy, although the rate of growth plays an important role in determining the shape. They propose an application to specific biological systems as well.