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Updated: Feb 3, 2026

A Simple, Robust, and High Throughput Single Molecule Flow Stretching Assay Implementation for Studying Transport of Molecules Along DNA
Published on: October 1, 2017
Stretching of single DNA molecules caused by accelerating flow on a microchip
Ken Hirano1, Takafumi Iwaki2, Tomomi Ishido1
1Health Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Takamatsu, Kagawa 761-0395 Japan.
Abstract:
DNA elongation induced by fluidic stress was investigated on a microfluidic chip composed of a large inlet pool and a narrow channel. Through single-DNA observation with fluorescence microscopy, the manner of stretching of individual T4 DNA molecules (166 kbp) was monitored near the area of accelerating flow with narrowing streamlines. The results showed that the DNA long-axis length increased in a sigmoidal manner depending on the magnitude of flow acceleration, or shear, along the DNA chain. To elucidate the physical mechanism of DNA elongation, we performed a theoretical study by adopting a model of a coarse-grained nonlinear elastic polymer chain elongated by shear stress due to acceleration flow along the chain direction.
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