Overtwisting induces polygonal shapes in bent DNA

Abstract

By combining analytical results and simulations of various coarse-grained models, we investigate the minimal energy shape of DNA minicircles which are torsionally constrained by an imposed over or undertwist. We show that twist-bend coupling, a cross interaction term discussed in the recent DNA literature, induces minimal energy shapes with a periodic alternation of parts with high and low curvature resembling rounded polygons. We briefly discuss the possible experimental relevance of these findings. We finally show that the twist and bending energies of minicircles are governed by renormalized stiffness constants, rather than the bare ones. This has important consequences for the analysis of experiments involving circular DNA meant to determine DNA elastic constants.