Supercoiling-regulated liquid-crystalline packaging of topologically-constrained, nucleosome-free DNA molecules

Electron microscopy and circular dichroism studies of cholesteric aggregates derived from topologically-constrained DNA molecules indicate that the overall morphology and structural properties of these aggregates are fundamentally different from those characterizing condensed structures of nonconstrained DNA species. Specifically, the cholesteric pitch and twist of all hitherto characterized lyotropic mesophases of biopolymers--including those obtained from linear DNA--depend predominantly upon environmental parameters such as the dielectric constant of the solvent. In contrast, the properties of aggregates derived from closed circular supercoiled DNA are found to be solely and directly dictated by the superhelical density and handedness. On the basis of these results, as well as on the demonstrated ubiquity of liquid-crystalline DNA organizations in vivo, we suggest that supercoiling-regulated liquid crystallinity represents an effective packaging mode of nucleosome-free, topologically-constrained DNA molecules in living systems.