Tops and writhing DNA
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Publication:540591
DOI10.1007/S10955-011-0175-1zbMATH Open1216.82065arXiv1011.6485OpenAlexW3103178415MaRDI QIDQ540591FDOQ540591
Authors: Joseph Samuel, Supurna Sinha 
Publication date: 3 June 2011
Published in: Journal of Statistical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)
Abstract: The torsional elasticity of semiflexible polymers like DNA is of biological significance. A mathematical treatment of this problem was begun by Fuller using the relation between link, twist and writhe, but progress has been hindered by the non-local nature of the writhe. This stands in the way of an analytic statistical mechanical treatment, which takes into account thermal fluctuations, in computing the partition function. In this paper we use the well known analogy with the dynamics of tops to show that when subjected to stretch and twist, the polymer configurations which dominate the partition function admit a local writhe formulation in the spirit of Fuller and thus provide an underlying justification for the use of Fuller's "local writhe expression" which leads to considerable mathematical simplification in solving theoretical models of DNA and elucidating their predictions. Our result facilitates comparison of the theoretical models with single molecule micromanipulation experiments and computer simulations.
Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1011.6485
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Cited In (15)
- Toroidal DNA: topology, geometry and electrostatics
- Biopolymer mechanics: stability, dynamics, and statistics
- Conformational analysis of stiff chiral polymers with end-constraints
- Scaling of linking and writhing numbers for spherically confined and topologically equilibrated flexible polymers
- External field influence on semiflexible macromolecules: geometric coupling
- Writhe induced phase transition in unknotted self-avoiding polygons
- Thermal fluctuations of small rings of intrinsically helical DNA treated like an elastic rod
- Title not available (Why is that?)
- WRITHING AND LINKING DENSITIES FOR CLOSED, CIRCULAR DNA
- Single-molecule magnetic tweezer tests on DNA: bounds on topoisomerase relaxation
- Title not available (Why is that?)
- Phase diagram of twist storing lattice polymers in variable solvent quality
- Title not available (Why is that?)
- Supercoiling of DNA plasmids: mechanics of the generalized ply
- Topological configuration in the Heisenberg spin sequence and DNA
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