Related papers: Comment on `Nanoconfinement-enhanced conformationa…
A scaling analysis is presented of the statistics of long DNA confined in nanochannels and nanoslits. It is argued that there are several regimes in between the de Gennes and Odijk limits introduced long ago. The DNA chain folds back on…
We investigate the effects excluded volume on the stretching of a single DNA in solution. We find that for small force F, the extension h is not linear in F but proportion to F^{\chi}, with \chi=(1-\nu)/\nu, where \nu is the well-known…
Theoretical results for the extension of a polymer confined to a channel are usually derived in the limit of infinite contour length. But experimental studies and simulations of DNA molecules confined to nanochannels are not necessarily in…
The extension of DNA confined to nanochannels has been studied intensively and in detail. Yet quantitative comparisons between experiments and model calculations are difficult because most theoretical predictions involve undetermined…
Single T4-DNA molecules were confined in rectangular-shaped channels with a depth of 300 nm and a width in the range 150-300 nm casted in a poly(dimethylsiloxane) nanofluidic chip. The extensions of the DNA molecules were measured with…
A double stranded DNA molecule when pulled with a force acting on one end of the molecule can become either partially or completely unzipped depending on the magnitude of the force F. For a random DNA sequence, the number M of unzipped base…
A number of recent experiments have provided detailed observations of the configurations of long DNA strands under nano-to-micrometer sized confinement. We therefore revisit the problem of an excluded volume polymer chain confined between…
The force-extension relation for a semi-flexible polymer such as DNA confined in a nanoslit is investigated and it is found that both the effective persistence length and the form of the force-extension relation change as the chain goes…
Studies of circular DNA confined to nanofluidic channels are relevant both from a fundamental polymer-physics perspective and due to the importance of circular DNA molecules in vivo. We here observe the unfolding of DNA from the circular to…
We study the compression and extension dynamics of a DNA-like polymer interacting with non-DNA binding and DNA-binding proteins, by means of computer simulations. The geometry we consider is inspired by recent experiments probing the…
We present a critique and extension of the mean-field approach to the mechanical pulling transition in bound polymer systems. Our model is motivated by the theoretically and experimentally important examples of adsorbed polymers and…
We develop further a statistical model coupling denaturation and chain conformations in DNA (Palmeri J, Manghi M and Destainville N 2007 Phys. Rev. Lett. 99 088103). Our Discrete Helical Wormlike Chain model takes explicitly into account…
We derive scaling relations for the extension statistics and the confinement free energy for a semi-flexible polymer confined to a channel with a rectangular cross-section. Our motivation are recent numerical results [Gupta {\em et al.},…
A theory is presented of DNA hairpins enclosed in a nanochannel. A hairpin becomes constrained as it approaches the wall of a channel which leads to an entropic force causing the hairpin to tighten. The free energy of the hairpin computed…
Semiflexible polymers characterized by the contour length $L$ and persistent length $\ell_p$ confined in a spatial region $D$ have been described as a series of ``{\em spherical blobs}'' and ``{\em deflecting lines}'' by de Gennes and Odjik…
We observed reptation of single DNA molecules in fused silica nanoslits of sub-30 nm height. The reptation behavior and the effect of confinement are quantitatively characterized using orientation correlation and transverse fluctuation…
We study how the orientational correlations of DNA confined to nanochannels depend on the channel diameter D by means of Monte Carlo simulations and a mean-field theory. This theory describes DNA conformations in the experimentally relevant…
Experiments measuring DNA extension in nanochannels are at odds with even the most basic predictions of current scaling arguments for the conformations of confined semiflexible polymers such as DNA. We show that a theory based on a weakly…
The osmotic coefficient of B-DNA in water may, in moderately dilute solutions, deviate as much as 100 % from predictions based on a simple 'counterion condensation' theory. We determine the results for osmotic properties via a cell model…
The control over DNA elongation in nanofluidic devices holds great potential for large-scale genomic analysis. So far, the manipulation of DNA in nanochannels has been mostly carried out with electrophoresis and seldom with hydrodynamics,…