We consider an elastic rod model for twisted DNA in the plectonemic regime.
The molecule is treated as an impenetrable tube with an effective, adjustable
radius. The model is solved analytically and we derive formulas for the contact
pressure, twisting moment and geometrical parameters of the supercoiled region.
We apply our model to magnetic tweezer experiments of a DNA molecule subjected
to a tensile force and a torque, and extract mechanical and geometrical
quantities from the linear part of the experimental response curve. These
reconstructed values are derived in a self-contained manner, and are found to
be consistent with those available in the literature.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure