Extension, Torque and Supercoiling in Single, Stretched and Twisted DNA Molecules

Abstract: We reinvestigate the model originally studied by Neukirch and Marko that describes the extension, torque and supercoiling in single, stretched and twisted DNA molecules, which consists of a mixture of extended and supercoiled state, using now a more accurate form of the free energy for the untwisted but stretched DNA. The original model uses an approximate form of this free energy and the agreement with experiment is only qualitative. We find that this more accurate free energy significantly improves the results, bring them into quantitative agreement with experiment, throughout the entire force regime. This is rather surprising, considering that the theory is completely parameter-free.