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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

DNA Nanotubes as a Versatile Tool to Study Semiflexible Polymers
Published on: October 25, 2017
Mechanical response of semiflexible networks to localized perturbations
D A Head1, A J Levine, F C MacKintosh
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Previous research on semiflexible polymers including cytoskeletal networks in cells has suggested the existence of distinct regimes of elastic response, in which the strain field is either uniform (affine) or nonuniform (nonaffine) under external stress. Associated with these regimes, it has been further suggested that a mesoscopic length scale emerges, which characterizes the scale for the crossover from nonaffine to affine deformations. Here, we extend these studies by probing the response to localized forces and force dipoles. We show that the previously identified nonaffinity length [D. A. Head, Phys. Rev. E 68, 061907 (2003)] controls the mesoscopic response to point forces and the crossover to continuum elastic behavior at large distances.
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