Can pulling cause right- to left-handed structural transitions in negatively supercoiled DNA double-helix?
Soft Condensed Matter
2007-05-23 v2 Statistical Mechanics
Biological Physics
q-bio
Abstract
The folding angle distribution of stretched and negatively supercoiled DNA double-helix is investigated based on a theoretical model we proposed earlier [H. Zhou et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 4560 (1999)]. It is shown that pulling can transit a negatively supercoiled DNA double-helix from the right-handed B-form to a left-handed configuration which resembles DNA Z-form in some important respects. The energetics of this possible transition is calculated and the comparison with recent experimental observations are qualitatively discussed.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9908129,
title = {Can pulling cause right- to left-handed structural transitions in negatively supercoiled DNA double-helix?},
author = {Zhou Haijun and Ou-Yang Zhong-can},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9908129},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
3 pages. A new paragraph as well as two figures are added in the revised paper. A new reference (Ref. 7) is included