Skip Navigation


Nucleic Acids Research Advance Access originally published online on September 5, 2006
Nucleic Acids Research 2006 34(16):4554-4560; doi:10.1093/nar/gkl394
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow Print PDF (564K) Freely available
Right arrow Screen PDF (193K) Freely available
Right arrowOA All Versions of this Article:
34/16/4554    most recent
gkl394v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrow Commercial Re-use Guidelines
for Open Access NAR Content
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Yuan, C.
Right arrow Articles by Archer, L. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Yuan, C.
Right arrow Articles by Archer, L. A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Nucleic Acids Research, 2006, Vol. 34, No. 16 4554-4560
© 2006 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Structural Biology

Spontaneous sharp bending of DNA: role of melting bubbles

Chongli Yuan, Elizabeth Rhoades1, Xiong Wen Lou and Lynden A. Archer*

School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853, USA 1 Department of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853, USA

*To whom correspondence should be addressed at School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University, 120 Olin Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. Tel: +1 607 254 8825; Fax: +1 607 255 9166; Email: laa25{at}cornell.edu

Received March 8, 2006. Revised May 5, 2006. Accepted May 9, 2006.

The role of centrally located and distributed base pair mismatches (‘melting bubbles’) on localized bending and stiffness of short dsDNA fragments is evaluated using time-dependent fluorescence lifetime measurements. Distributed melting bubbles are found to induce larger bending angles and decreased levels of stiffness in DNA than centrally located ones of comparable overall size. Our results indicate that spontaneous local opening-up of the DNA duplex could facilitate sharp bending of short DNA strands even in the absence of DNA binding proteins. We also find that the occurrence of two closely spaced melting bubbles will generally be favored when a large energetic barrier must be overcome in forming the desired bent DNA structure.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Nucleic Acids ResHome page
S. A. Harris, C. A. Laughton, and T. B. Liverpool
Mapping the phase diagram of the writhe of DNA nanocircles using atomistic molecular dynamics simulations
Nucleic Acids Res., January 17, 2008; 36(1): 21 - 29.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Nucleic Acids ResHome page
C. Yuan, X. W. Lou, E. Rhoades, H. Chen, and L. A. Archer
T4 DNA ligase is more than an effective trap of cyclized dsDNA
Nucleic Acids Res., August 13, 2007; 35(16): 5294 - 5302.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.