Discrete elastic model for stretching-induced flagellar polymorphs

Force-induced reversible transformations between coiled and normal polymorphs of bacterial flagella have been observed in recent optical-tweezer experiment. We introduce a discrete elastic rod model with two competing helical states governed by a fluctuating spin-like variable that represents the underlying conformational states of flagellin monomers. Using hybrid Brownian dynamics Monte Carlo simulations, we show that a helix undergoes shape transitions dominated by domain wall nucleation and motion in response to externally applied uniaxial tension. A scaling argument for the critical force is presented in good agreement with experimental and simulation results. Stretching-rate-dependent elasticity including a buckling instability are found, also consistent with the experiment.

• Publication year

  2008

• Venue

  EPL (Europhysics Letters)

• Publication date

  2008-04-01

• Fields of study

  Physics

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1209/0295-5075/82/28001arXiv 0804.0893
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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