Abstract：As a coarse-gained model, an elastic rod model subjected to the interfacial traction is established by the Kirchhoff’s theory. The interfacial traction between the rod and the solution environment is determined in term of the Young-Laplace equation, and the influences of the ionic concentration on the interfacial traction and elastic modulus are discussed. Based on this elastic rod model, the shooting method is used to simulate the equilibrium configurations of DNA under the actions of the interfacial traction and a longitudinal stretch applied at an end of segment. The shapes and sizes of the condensed DNA are discussed. The results show that the shapes of the DNA condensation are mainly determined by the competition between the interfacial energy and elastic strain energy, and the variations of end-to-end distance are consistent with the worm-like chain model.
2015, Vol. 36 
