Wringing out DNA
arXiv:q-bio/0602008 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.178102
Abstract
The chiral nature of DNA plays a crucial role in cellular processes. Here we use magnetic tweezers to explore one of the signatures of this chirality, the coupling between stretch and twist deformations. We show that the extension of a stretched DNA molecule increases linearly by 0.42 nm per excess turn applied to the double helix. This result contradicts the intuition that DNA should lengthen as it is unwound and get shorter with overwinding. We then present numerical results of energy minimizations of torsionally restrained DNA that display a behaviour similar to the experimental data and shed light on the molecular details of this surprising effect.
4 pages revtex4, 4 figures
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- Topological phase transitions of Thouless charge pumping realized in helical organic molecules with long-range hoppings
- Twisting short dsDNA with applied tension
- Twist-stretch profiles of DNA chains
- Heat Transport with a Twist
- Twist-stretch relations in nucleic acids
- Twist neutrality, a zero sum rule for oriented closed space curves with applications to circular DNA
- The size of the nucleosome
- Transcription and the Pitch Angle of DNA
- Strain dependent twist-stretch elasticity in chiral filaments
- Statistical method for A-RNA and B-DNA
- Mechanical response to tension and torque of molecular chains via statistically interacting particles associated with extension, contraction, twist, and supercoiling