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Biological consequences of tightly bent DNA: The other life of a macromolecular celebrity
Author(s) -
Garcia Hernan G.,
Grayson Paul,
Han Lin,
Inamdar Mandar,
Kondev Jané,
Nelson Philip C.,
Phillips Rob,
Widom Jonathan,
Wiggins Paul A.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
biopolymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 125
eISSN - 1097-0282
pISSN - 0006-3525
DOI - 10.1002/bip.20627
Subject(s) - dna , nucleosome , persistence length , bent molecular geometry , genome , chemistry , biophysics , macromolecule , nanotechnology , gene , computational biology , histone , biology , molecule , biochemistry , materials science , organic chemistry
The mechanical properties of DNA play a critical role in many biological functions. For example, DNA packing in viruses involves confining the viral genome in a volume (the viral capsid) with dimensions that are comparable to the DNA persistence length. Similarly, eukaryotic DNA is packed in DNA–protein complexes (nucleosomes), in which DNA is tightly bent around protein spools. DNA is also tightly bent by many proteins that regulate transcription, resulting in a variation in gene expression that is amenable to quantitative analysis. In these cases, DNA loops are formed with lengths that are comparable to or smaller than the DNA persistence length. The aim of this review is to describe the physical forces associated with tightly bent DNA in all of these settings and to explore the biological consequences of such bending, as increasingly accessible by single‐molecule techniques. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 85:115–130, 2007. This article was originally published online as an accepted preprint. The “Published Online” date corresponds to the preprint version. You can request a copy of the preprint by emailing the Biopolymers editorial office at biopolymers@wiley.com