High-yield generation of a long-lived charge-separated state in diphenylacetylene-modified DNA

Polytene chromosomes are giant interphase chromosomes with several DNA strands placed side by side. They were discovered in the year 1881 by Balbiani in salivary glands, intestine, muscles, malpighian tubules, and hypoderm of larvae Chironomus plumosus. Hence, these are also called "Salivary gland chromosomes." These are found in insects of the order Diptera and Collembola; in certain organs of mammals; and synergids, antipodes of flowering plants. Polytene chromosomes are also regularly...

In the same year as the discovery of the Sanger sequencing method, another group of scientists, Allan Maxam and Walter Gilbert, demonstrated their chemical-cleavage method for DNA sequencing. The Maxam-Gilbert method relies on using different chemicals that can cleave the DNA sequence at specific sites, the separation of resulting DNA fragments of variable size using electrophoresis, and deciphering the DNA sequence from the resulting gel bands.
Challenges of the Maxam-Gilbert Method
The...

Since the discovery of the two BER pathways, there has been a debate about how a cell chooses one pathway over the other and the factors determining this selection. Numerous in vitro experiments have pointed out multiple determinants for the sub-pathway selection. These are:

The basic reaction of homologous recombination (HR) involves two chromatids that contain DNA sequences sharing a significant stretch of identity. One of these sequences uses a strand from another as a template to synthesize DNA in an enzyme-catalyzed reaction. The final product is a novel amalgamation of the two substrates. To ensure an accurate recombination of sequences, HR is restricted to the S and G2 phases of the cell cycle. At these stages, the DNA has been replicated already and the...