Supercoiling of DNA plasmids: mechanics of the generalized ply

By J. Michael T. Thompson, G. V. D. Heijden, Sebastien Neukirch. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 2002

84 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In this paper we address the mechanics of ply formation in DNA supercoils. We extend the variable ply formulation of Coleman & Swigon to include end loads, and the derived constitutive relations of this generalized ply are shown to be in excellent agreement with experiments. We make a careful physical examination of the uniform ply in which two strands coil around one another in the form of a helix. We next address the problem of determining the link (Lk), twist (Tw) and writhe (Wr) of a closed DNA plasmid from an inspection of its electron micrograph. Previous work has made use of the topological relation, Lk= Tw+ Wr, but we show how this kinematic result can be augmented by the mechanics solutions. A very precise result is achieved in a trial calculation.

Subfields: Aerospace Engineering, Civil and Structural Engineering, Mechanical Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/db8753b69330b5d4e27cad645ab1fa3e96c8f84d

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

  1. G. H. M. Heijden
  2. J. Michael T. Thompson
  3. Sebastien Neukirch
  4. V. Goss
  5. M. Bergou

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