Figure 6.

Fit of chromatin decondensation data by a two-state model. A persistence length of 30 nm is assumed for both before and after the transition (either side of the plateau). A contour length of 0.7 μm was used for the condensed fiber (short form), whereas the contour length for the decondensed fiber (long form) is assumed to be two times longer. The energy to convert the short form to long form is found to be 3.8 kT from the fit. The divergence between the experimental values (○) and the calculated values (solid line) at high forces results from the inextensible nature of the model.