Irobalieva, RN, Fogg, JM, Catanese, CDJ et al. (8 more authors) (2015) Structural diversity of supercoiled DNA. Nature Communications, 6. 8440.
Abstract
By regulating access to the genetic code, DNA supercoiling strongly affects DNA metabolism. Despite its importance, however, much about supercoiled DNA (positively supercoiled DNA, in particular) remains unknown. Here we use electron cryo-tomography together with
biochemical analyses to investigate structures of individual purified DNA min icircle topoisomers with defined degrees of supercoiling. Our results reveal that each topoisomer, negative or positive, adopts a unique and surprisingly wide distribution of three-dimensional conformations. Moreover, we uncover striking differences in how the topoisomers handle
torsional stress. As negative supercoiling increases, bases are increasingly exposed. Beyond a sharp supercoiling threshold, we also detect exposed bases in positively supercoiled DNA. Molecular dynamics simulations independently confirm the conformational heterogeneity and
provide atomistic insight into the flexibility of supercoiled DNA. Our integrated approach reveals the three-dimensional structures of DNA that are essential for its function.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author (s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Theoretical Physics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 26 May 2016 11:32 |
Last Modified: | 09 Apr 2021 15:57 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9440 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Publishing Group |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/ncomms9440 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:100232 |