Physics – Condensed Matter – Soft Condensed Matter
Scientific paper
1997-11-26
Physics
Condensed Matter
Soft Condensed Matter
accepted in PRL
Scientific paper
The elasticity of DNA catenanes, i.e. multiply linked DNA rings, is investigated using the Gauss invariant as a minimal model for topology conservation. An effective elastic free energy as a function of the distance $R$ between segments located on different rings is obtained. An anharmonic part at large distances, growing as $R^{4}$, if $R\gg R_{G}$ ($R_{G}$ being the radius of gyration of a random walk ring) is found, while for $R\ll R_{G}$ the interaction is strongly repulsive. Treating the attractive interaction as the dominant one, distribution functions for the distance between segments located on different rings for several linking numbers are derived which are in qualitative agreement with distributions functions obtained experimentally from electron micrographs of DNA catenanes (S. D. Levene et al., Biophys.J. 69, 277, 1995).
Otto Matthias
Vilgis Thomas A.
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