Supercoiling News and Research

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Unraveling the Molecular Mechanisms of DNA Entanglement Resolution

Picture in your mind a traditional "landline" telephone with a coiled cord connecting the handset to the phone.

12 Apr 2024

Study Reports High-Resolution Structures of CAF-1

Since the passage of the DNA replication fork destroys nucleosomes on the DNA, chromatin inheritance during cell division requires the replication of DNA and the assembling of nucleosomes onto the duplicated DNA.

28 Aug 2023

Highly potent antibiotic candidate identified

One of the most promising new antibiotic candidates in decades is a powerful plant toxin that harbors a novel way of killing hazardous bacteria.

26 Jan 2023

Cryo-EM solves the decades-old mystery of bacterial movement

Scientists from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and their colleagues have discovered a decades-old mystery regarding how E. coli and other bacteria move.

28 Sep 2022

Supercoiling and looping can transmit mechanical stress along the DNA backbone, shows study

When people think of DNA, they visualize a string-like double helix structure. In reality, the DNA double helix in cells is supercoiled and constrained into loops. This supercoiling and looping are known to influence every aspect of DNA activity, but how this happens has not been clear.

28 Sep 2021

Study reveals the role of transcription in shaping the genome

Developments in the field of microscopy allowed scientists to picture loops of DNA strands for the first time.

26 Jul 2021

“Topologically tunable” DNA-based material has potential applications in drug delivery, tissue regeneration

DNA is usually idealized as the “molecule of life,” but it is also a highly advanced polymer that can be used for cutting-edge materials. Apart from storing information, other interesting aspects of DNA are its topological and geometrical properties, like super-coiling and knotting.

31 May 2021

Supercoiling characteristic of DNA's structure controls gene expression, research shows

The two meters of -stretched- DNA contained in human cells are continuously twisting and untwisting to give access to genetic information: when a gene is expressed to generate a protein, the two strands of DNA are separated to give access to all the machinery necessary for this expression, resulting in an excessive accumulation of coiling that needs to be resolved later.

10 May 2021

Study reveals DNA supercoiling is involved in regulating gene expression

The (when stretched) two-meter-long DNA molecule in each human cell is continuously being unpacked and packed again to enable the expression of genetic information.

15 Apr 2021