title: Unraveling DNA tori under tension.
abstract: Motivated by recent experiments, we develop a model for DNA toroids under external tension. We find that tori are the equilibrium states for our model up to a critical tension, above which they become only metastable. Above this tension, we find a cascade of transitions between discrete toroid states that successively lower the winding number, until the ground state (rod) is reached. In this process, this model predicts a nearly constant force plateau as a function of extension, in agreement with experiment.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Theoretical Physics, Universiteit van Amsterdam, 1018 XE Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Battle
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: van den Broek
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Noom
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van Mameren
authors.forename: G J L
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Wuite
authors.forename: F C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: MacKintosh
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D004247:DNA