Before revision:  We show that loop formation is greatly enhanced in the presence of noise  , yet find that hypothetical regulatory schemes that employ mechanical tension in the DNA--as a sensitive switch to control transcription--can be surprisingly robust due to a fortuitous cancellation of noise effects.
After revision:  We show that loop formation is greatly enhanced in the presence of noise of only a fraction of k_B T , yet find that hypothetical regulatory schemes that employ mechanical tension in the DNA--as a sensitive switch to control transcription--can be surprisingly robust due to a fortuitous cancellation of noise effects.