Statistical mechanics of supercoils and the torsional stiffness of the DNA double helix
- 1 July 1979
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in Nature
- Vol. 280 (5720), 294-298
- https://doi.org/10.1038/280294a0
Abstract
The distribution of closed unknotted polymer chains over the writhing number is calculated by the Monte-Carlo method. For circular duplex DNA [from viruses and plasmids] the variance of the distribution equals approximately half the observed variance of equilibrium distribution over the linking number. The balance which arises from fluctuations in DNA twisting makes it possible to estimate the torsional stiffness of the double helix.This publication has 31 references indexed in Scilit:
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