Abstract
DNA and some proteins have a multistranded chain structure and exhibit characteristic tertiary structures due to twisting or anisotropic rigidity. We studied the effect of chain twisting on the behavior of a circular double-stranded polymer chain using a Monte Carlo simulation with bond fluctuation model. We found that there are two regimes for the chain conformation, depending on its twisting. In the first regime, with weak twisting, a circular chain behaves like a coiled linear chain. In the second regime, the chain shows scaling dependencies characterized by supercoiled structures.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 9424-9433 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Journal of Chemical Physics |
| Volume | 111 |
| Issue number | 20 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 22 1999 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Physics and Astronomy
- Physical and Theoretical Chemistry