
Paper: Structural ensemble and microscopic elasticity of freely diffusing DNA by direct measurement of fluctuations Authors: Xuesong Shi, Daniel Herschlag, and Pehr A.B. Harbury Reference: PNAS 110, E1444-E1451 (2013) http://www.pnas.org/content/110/16/E1444 Abstract : Deformation of the double helix is a ubiquitous feature of the protein-DNA interactions that regulate, replicate, repair, and pack DNA in cells. Understanding the energetics of DNA deformation is therefore of central importance. DNA is generally modeled as a linear elastic rod, but it has not been possible to test this directly by observing the nanometer-scale bending and twisting of the helix. Using an X-ray interferometry technique, we measured the structural fluctuations of a short B-form duplex. The results expose a potential nonlinearity of DNA elasticity and illustrate how to measure the structural ensemble of a freely diffusing macromolecule.

Paper: Structural ensemble and microscopic elasticity of freely diffusing DNA by direct measurement of fluctuations
Authors: Xuesong Shi, Daniel Herschlag, and Pehr A.B. Harbury
Reference: PNAS 110, E1444-E1451 (2013) http://www.pnas.org/content/110/16/E1444

Abstract : Deformation of the double helix is a ubiquitous feature of the protein-DNA interactions that regulate, replicate, repair, and pack DNA in cells. Understanding the energetics of DNA deformation is therefore of central importance. DNA is generally modeled as a linear elastic rod, but it has not been possible to test this directly by observing the nanometer-scale bending and twisting of the helix. Using an X-ray interferometry technique, we measured the structural fluctuations of a short B-form duplex. The results expose a potential nonlinearity of DNA elasticity and illustrate how to measure the structural ensemble of a freely diffusing macromolecule.