Elastic response of DNA molecules under the action of interfacial traction and stretching: An elastic thin rod model

摘要

In a multivalent salt solution, a segment of DNA is modeled as an elastic rod subjected to the interfacial traction. The shooting method is used to calculate the equilibrium configurations of condensed DNA under the action of the longitudinal end-force and interfacial traction simultaneously. The results show that the shapes of DNA are mainly determined by the competition between the interfacial energy and elastic strain energy of stretching. The change of end-to-end distance with the longitudinal end-force is consistent with the worm-like chain (WLC) model. The higher the concentration is, the stronger the condensation of DNA.