Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 12, 2025

11:27
Studying DNA Looping by Single-Molecule FRET
Published on: June 28, 2014
15.5K
DNA supercoiling-induced shapes alter minicircle hydrodynamic properties
Radost Waszkiewicz1, Maduni Ranasinghe2, Jonathan M Fogg3
1Institute of Theoretical Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 5, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland.
Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology
|January 30, 2023
Summary
DNA supercoiling influences its 3-D shape and hydrodynamic properties. This study reveals how DNA minicircle shape, loop length, and supercoiling affect diffusion and sedimentation, impacting DNA functions.
Area of Science:
- Molecular Biology
- Biophysics
- Physical Chemistry
Background:
- DNA exists as negatively supercoiled loops in cells, influencing its three-dimensional structure.
- DNA supercoiling, looping, and shape are critical for DNA storage, replication, transcription, and repair.
Conclusions:
- Negative supercoiling and DNA shape play a crucial role in determining hydrodynamic behavior.
- The combined theoretical and experimental framework provides a method for predicting supercoiling's effects on DNA.
- This research offers insights into DNA organization and function at a molecular level.
Related Concept Videos
Single-Strand DNA Binding Proteins
14.5K
For successful DNA replication, the unwinding of double-stranded DNA must be accompanied by stabilization and protection of the separated single strands of the DNA. This crucial task is performed by single-strand DNA-binding (SSB) proteins. They bind to the DNA in a sequence-independent manner, which means that the nitrogenous bases of the DNA need not be present in a specific order for binding of SSB proteins to it. The binding of SSB proteins straightens single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and makes...
14.5K
DNA Topoisomerases
31.6K
Topoisomerases are enzymes that relax overwound DNA molecules during various cell processes, including DNA replication and transcription. These enzymes regulate positive and negative DNA supercoiling without changing the nucleotide sequence. DNA overwinding in a clockwise direction results in positively supercoiled DNA, whereas underwinding in a counterclockwise direction produces negatively supercoiled DNA.
Types and Mechanism of action
Topoisomerases are divided into two main types. ...
Types and Mechanism of action
Topoisomerases are divided into two main types. ...
31.6K
Protein Folding
118.7K
Overview
118.7K
Molecular Shape and Polarity
60.8K
Dipole Moment of a Molecule
60.8K
DNA Helicases
21.7K
DNA unwinding helicase enzymes are a type of motor protein. Motor proteins can translocate along filaments or polymers using energy generated from ATP hydrolysis. Helicases are involved in all the important cellular processes where DNA unwinding is required, such as DNA replication, repair, recombination, and transcription. They are present in all living organisms, but vary in their structure, function, and mechanism of action. For example, in prokaryotes, DnaB helicase binds and translocates...
21.7K
DNA as a Genetic Template
22.3K
Two structural features of the DNA molecule provide a basis for the mechanisms of heredity: the four nucleotide bases and its double-stranded nature. The Watson-Crick model of double-helical DNA structure, proposed in 1952, drew heavily upon the X-ray crystallography work of researchers Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins. Watson, Crick, and Wilkins jointly received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work in 1962. Franklin was, controversially, excluded from the prize for...
22.3K

