Article abstract
Nature Physics 5, 769 - 773 (2009)
Published online: 30 August 2009 | doi:10.1038/nphys1371
Subject Category: Biological physics
Probing the microscopic flexibility of DNA from melting temperatures
Gerald Weber1, Jonathan W. Essex2 & Cameron Neylon2,3
Abstract
The microscopic flexibility of DNA is a key ingredient for understanding its interaction with proteins and drugs but is still poorly understood and technically challenging to measure. Several experimental methods probe very long DNA samples, but these miss local flexibility details. Others mechanically disturb or modify short molecules and therefore do not obtain flexibility properties of unperturbed and pristine DNA. Here, we show that it is possible to extract very detailed flexibility information about unmodified DNA from melting temperatures with statistical physics models. We were able to retrieve, from published melting temperatures, several established flexibility properties such as the presence of highly flexible TATA regions of genomic DNA and support recent findings that DNA is very flexible at short length scales. New information about the nanoscale Na+ concentration dependence of DNA flexibility was determined and we show the key role of ApT and TpA steps when it comes to ion-dependent flexibility and melting temperatures.
- Department of Physics, Federal University of Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto-MG 35400-000, Brazil
- School of Chemistry, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
- STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot OX11 0QX, UK
Correspondence to: Gerald Weber1 e-mail: gweberbh@gmail.com
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