Extension of DNA in a nanochannel as a rod-to-coil transition.

DNA confinement in nanochannels is emerging as an important tool for genomics and an excellent platform for testing the theories of confined wormlike polymers. Using cutting-edge, large scale Monte Carlo simulations of asymptotically long wormlike chains, we show that, in analogy to the rod-to-coil transition for free wormlike polymers, there exists a universal, Gauss-de Gennes regime that connects the classic Odijk and de Gennes regimes of channel-confined chains. For DNA in a nanochannel, this Gauss-de Gennes regime spans practically the entire experimentally relevant range of channel sizes, including the nanochannels used in an incipient genome mapping technology.