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Effect of bacteria growth temperature on the distribution of supercoiled DNA and its thermal stability
Author(s) -
Adamčík Jozef,
Víglasky´ Viktor,
Valle Francesco,
Antalík Marián,
Podhradsky´ Dušan,
Dietler Giovanni
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
electrophoresis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.666
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1522-2683
pISSN - 0173-0835
DOI - 10.1002/1522-2683(200210)23:19<3300::aid-elps3300>3.0.co;2-q
Subject(s) - dna supercoil , dna , bacteria , plasmid , biophysics , chemistry , gel electrophoresis , electrophoresis , topoisomerase , escherichia coli , population , biology , biochemistry , dna replication , genetics , demography , sociology , gene
Changes in DNA supercoiling might be essential to generate the response of cellular machinery to temperature stress. The heat‐induced structural transition for a topoisomer depends on the value of its specific linking difference. We detect only less negatively supercoiled DNA and an abundance of alternative irregular DNA forms at culture temperatures close to the growth limit of Escherichia coli. We show that the irregular forms are derived from regular plasmid DNAs and their population in the cells is temperature‐dependent. Here, we show that it is possible to isolate and characterize individual DNA topoisomers directly from cells without a topoisomerase treatment. Temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TGGE) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to study the effect of bacteria growth temperature on the distribution of supercoiled DNA and its thermal stability.