Macromolecules, Vol.38, No.6, 2469-2474, 2005
Extracting structural information of a heteropolymer from force-extension curves
We present a theory for the reverse analysis on the sequence information on a single H/P two-letter random heteropolymer (RHP) from its force-extension (f-z) curves during quasi static stretching. Upon stretching of a self-assembled RHP, it undergoes several structural transitions. The typical elastic response of a heteropolymeric globule is a set of overlapping saw-tooth patterns. With consideration of the height and the position of the overlapping saw-tooth shape, we analyze the possibility of extracting the binding energies of the internal domains and the corresponding block sizes of the contributing conformations.