  Recent experiments have shown that the force-extension (F-x) curve for
single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) consisting only of adenine [poly(dA)] is
significantly different from thymine [poly(dT)]. Here, we show that the base
stacking interaction is not sufficient to describe the F-x curves as seen in
the experiments. A reduction in the reaction co-ordinate arising from the
formation of helix at low forces and an increase in the distance between
consecutive phosphates of unstacked bases in the stretched state at high force
in the proposed model, qualitatively reproduces the experimentally observed
features. The multi-step plateau in the F-x curve is a signature of structural
change in ssDNA.
