Strongly Bent Double-Stranded DNA: Reconciling Theory and Experiment.

ABSTRACT: The strong bending of polymers is poorly understood. We propose a general quantitative framework of polymer bending that includes both the weak and strong bending regimes on the same footing, based on a single general physical principle. As the bending deformation increases beyond a certain (polymer-specific) point, the change in the convexity properties of the effective bending energy of the polymer makes the harmonic deformation energetically unfavorable: in this strong bending regime the energy of the polymer varies linearly with the average bending angle as the system follows the convex hull of the deformation energy function. For double-stranded DNA, the effective bending deformation energy becomes non-convex for bends greater than ~ 2° per base-pair, equivalent to the curvature of a

SUBMITTER: Drozdetski AV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7323118 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature