Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Condensation of long double-helical DNAs is a sharp phase transition, which takes place within a narrow interval of condensing agent concentrations.[ref] Since the double helices come very closely to each other in the condensed phase, this leads to the restructuring of water molecules, which gives rise to the so-called hydration forces.[ref] To ...
Thus, acetylation of histones is known to increase the expression of genes through transcription activation. Deacetylation performed by HDAC molecules has the opposite effect. By deacetylating the histone tails, the DNA becomes more tightly wrapped around the histone cores, making it harder for transcription factors to bind to the DNA.
DNA is a long polymer made from repeating units called nucleotides. [6] [7] The structure of DNA is dynamic along its length, being capable of coiling into tight loops and other shapes. [8] In all species it is composed of two helical chains, bound to each other by hydrogen bonds.
Heterochromatin is a tightly packed form of DNA or condensed DNA, which comes in multiple varieties. These varieties lie on a continuum between the two extremes of constitutive heterochromatin and facultative heterochromatin. Both play a role in the expression of genes.
The term intrinsic DNA fluorescence refers to the fluorescence emitted directly by DNA when it absorbs ultraviolet (UV) radiation. It contrasts to that stemming from fluorescent labels that are either simply bound to DNA or covalently attached to it, [1] [2] widely used in biological applications; such labels may be chemically modified, not naturally occurring, nucleobases.
In their native state, the bases of DNA absorb light in the 260-nm wavelength region. When the bases become unstacked, the wavelength of maximum absorbance does not change, but the amount absorbed increases by 37%. A double stranded DNA strand dissociating to two single strands produces a sharp cooperative transition.
DNA supercoiling is important for DNA packaging within all cells. Because the length of DNA can be thousands of times that of a cell, packaging this genetic material into the cell or nucleus (in eukaryotes) is a difficult feat. Supercoiling of DNA reduces the space and allows for DNA to be packaged.
DNA within the nucleosome remains fully wrapped for only 250 ms before it is unwrapped for 10-50 ms and then rapidly rewrapped, as measured using time-resolved FRET. [40] This implies that DNA does not need to be actively dissociated from the nucleosome but that there is a significant fraction of time during which it is fully accessible.