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Understanding DNA is crucial: it stores the information that drives the work of cells and is increasingly used in nano and biotechnology applications
.
A key question for DNA researchers is what role the helical nature of DNA plays in the process that occurs on DNA
When a motor protein moves forward along the DNA, it must twist or rotate the DNA to counteract the torsional resistance of the DNA
.
(As these motors move along the DNA, they can perform gene expression or DNA replication
In "Twist Stiffness of Extended and Plectonemic DNA" published in Physical Review Letters on July 7, the researchers reported a method for measuring the torsional stiffness of DNA.
The new method is to measure the difficulty of reversing DNA when the end-to-end distance of DNA remains constant
.
"We came up with a very clever way to measure the torsional stiffness of DNA," said senior author Michelle Wang
.
She is the James Gilbert White Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics, College of Arts and Sciences, and a researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
"Intuitively, it seems that DNA becomes extremely easy to distort under extremely low forces," Wang said
.
In fact, many people have made such assumptions
The first author is Gao Xiang, a postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics
.
This technology also provides new opportunities for studying the twist-induced phase transitions in DNA and their biological significance
.
"Many colleagues told me that they are very excited about this discovery because it has broad implications for DNA processes in the body," Wang said
Journal Reference :
Xiang Gao, Yifeng Hong, Fan Ye, James T.
