Structural Transitions of a Twisted and Stretched DNA Molecule
- 2 August 1999
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 83 (5), 1066-1069
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.83.1066
Abstract
We report results of a micromanipulation study of single double-helical DNA molecules at forces up to 150 pN. Depending on whether the DNA winding is allowed to relax, or held fixed, qualitatively different structural transitions are observed. By studying the transitions as a function of winding the different DNA structures underlying them are characterized; this allows us to report the first estimate of helicity. A model is introduced to describe these transitions; in addition to , we find that four DNA states are needed to describe the experiments.
Keywords
This publication has 9 references indexed in Scilit:
- Stretched and overwound DNA forms a Pauling-like structure with exposed basesProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1998
- RecA binding to a single double-stranded DNA molecule: A possible role of DNA conformational fluctuationsProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 1998
- Behavior of Supercoiled DNABiophysical Journal, 1998
- DNA under high tension: Overstretching, undertwisting, and relaxation dynamicsPhysical Review E, 1998
- Modelling Extreme Stretching of DNANucleic Acids Research, 1996
- The Elasticity of a Single Supercoiled DNA MoleculeScience, 1996
- Overstretching B-DNA: The Elastic Response of Individual Double-Stranded and Single-Stranded DNA MoleculesScience, 1996
- DNA: An Extensible MoleculeScience, 1996
- The Writhing Number of a Space CurveProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1971