The high-resolution structure of the 43 kDa N-terminal fragment of the DNA gyrase B protein shows a large cavity within the protein dimer. The approximate size of this cavity is 20 A, suggesting it could accommodate a DNA helix. Computer-modelling studies of this cavity suggest that it contains a constriction, reducing the width to approximately 13 A, principally caused by the side chain of Arg...

There have been a small number of reports of radiation-induced mtDNA damage, and mtDNA supercoiling formation change induced by ionizing radiation has not been investigated before. This study evaluated mtDNA damage and supercoiling formation change after X-irradiation. The human breast cancer cell line, MCF-7 cells were used for analysis. Modified supercoiling-sensitive real-time PCR approach w...

A protein factor with an estimated molecular mass of 50 kDa has been purified to homogeneity from the silk gland of Bombyx mori. In the presence of a molar excess of this factor and eukaryotic DNA topoisomerase II, relaxed circular DNA is converted to the negatively supercoiled form. Eukaryotic DNA topoisomerase I cannot substitute for eukaryotic DNA topoisomerase II in the supercoiling reactio...

By monitoring the end-to-end extension of a mechanically stretched, supercoiled, single DNA molecule, we have been able directly to observe the change in extension associated with unwinding of approximately one turn of promoter DNA by RNA polymerase (RNAP). By performing parallel experiments with negatively and positively supercoiled DNA, we have been able to deconvolute the change in extension...

Topology affects physical and biological properties of DNA and impacts fundamental cellular processes, such as gene expression, genome replication, chromosome structure and segregation. In all organisms DNA topology is carefully modulated and the supercoiling degree of defined genome regions may change according to physiological and environmental conditions. Elucidation of structural properties...

Using molecular dynamics simulations, we show here that growing plectonemes resulting from transcription-induced supercoiling have the ability to actively push cohesin rings along chromatin fibres. The pushing direction is such that within each topologically associating domain (TAD) cohesin rings forming handcuffs move from the source of supercoiling, constituted by RNA polymerase with associat...

Frequently, DNA in vivo is organized into loops that are partially underwound and consequently form interwound helical supercoils. Methods from polymer statistical mechanics are used to show how the competition between entropy (thermal fluctuations) and elastic energy determines supercoil radius and pitch, in good agreement with recent experiments and simulations. Supercoil reorganization by me...

DNA structures It is now 30 years since Watson & Crick (1953) proposed the base-paired double helical structure for DNA. Although the details of the structure in terms of the precise torsion angles adopted along the deoxyribose-phosphate backbone have undergone considerable revision and refinement, the essential nature of the structure was of course correct, and has subsequently stimulated the ...

DNA-protein loops can be essential for gene regulation. The Escherichia coli lactose (lac) operon is controlled by DNA-protein loops that have been studied for decades. Here we adapt this model to test the hypothesis that negative superhelical strain facilitates the formation of short-range (6-8 DNA turns) repression loops in E. coli. The natural negative superhelicity of E. coli DNA is regulat...