Recent experimental methods allow to monitor the response of macromolecules
to locally applied fields, complementing usual, mesoscopic techniques. Based on
the Rouse-model and its extension to generalized Gaussian structures (GGS), we
follow here the stretching of comb macromolecules under local fields. This
leads to a wealth of informations about the structure: Namely, given the
inhomogeneous architecture of combs, the dynamics and amount of stretching
depend strongly on the position of the monomer on which the external fields
act. We discuss both the theoretical and the experimental implications of our
findings, given that micromanipulations can be supplemented by fluorescence
measurements, which are very sensitive to changes in the intramolecular
distances.Comment: 16 pages, 5 pdf figures, to appear in Chem. Phy