Dynamics of DNA Supercoils
2012
van Loenhout, M. T. J. | de Grunt, M. V. | Dekker, C.
Watching Supercoiled DNA The DNA double helix can undergo additional twisting, or supercoiling, that plays a role in transciption and protein binding, in part by bringing distant DNA locations together. The process forms intertwined loops, called plectonemes, and van Loenhout et al. (p. 94, published online 13 September; see the Perspective by Sheinin and Wang) visualized plectoneme dynamics of fluorescently labeled, 21-kilobase tethered DNA molecules using magnetic tweezers to apply twisting forces. Plectonemes could diffuse along the DNA, but move more rapidly if they “hopped”—nucleating a plectoneme at a new position.
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