  The question of the value of the pitch angle of DNA is visited from the
perspective of a geometrical analysis of transcription. It is suggested that
for transcription to be possible, the pitch angle of B-DNA must be smaller than
the angle of zero-twist. At the zero-twist angle the double helix is maximally
rotated and its strain-twist coupling vanishes. A numerical estimate of the
pitch angle for B-DNA based on differential geometry is compared with numbers
obtained from existing empirical data. The crystallographic studies shows that
the pitch angle is approximately 38 deg., less than the corresponding
zero-twist angle of 41.8 deg., which is consistent with the suggested principle
for transcription.
