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Stretching and overstretching of DNA in pulsed field gel electrophoresis. II. Coupling of orientation and transport in initial response to the field
Author(s) -
Mayer Pascal,
Sturm Jean,
Weill Gilbert
Publication year - 1993
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.360330906
Subject(s) - chemistry , agarose , field (mathematics) , electrophoresis , relaxation (psychology) , coupling (piping) , electric field , dna , birefringence , gel electrophoresis , overshoot (microwave communication) , biophysics , chemical physics , optics , physics , chromatography , materials science , biochemistry , composite material , quantum mechanics , psychology , social psychology , mathematics , electrical engineering , pure mathematics , biology , engineering
The rise of the birefringence following the application of an electric field to DNA in an agarose gel has been quantitatively analyzed to demonstrate the major role played by the chain overstretching. By analyzing the field free decay after short times, we demonstrate that the overshoot is completely due to overstretching. Its time of appearance τ ov varies with the field and DNA length in fair agreement with the E −l N 0 ln N 0 prediction of Lim et al. [ (1990), Journal of Chemical Physics , Vol. 92, pp. 709–721]. The τ ov is also the time corresponding to one tube renewal after relaxation of the overstretching. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.