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PMID: 273227 Published · ppublish English Journal Article

How many base-pairs per turn does DNA have in solution and in chromatin? Some theoretical calculations.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ·Vol. 75 ·No. 2 ·1978-02-00 ·Pages 640-4

Levitt M

Abstract

Calculations on a 20-base pair segment of DNA double helix using empirical energy functions show that DNA can be bent smoothly and uniformly into a superhelix with a small enough radius (45 A) to fit the dimensions of chromatin. The variation of energy with the twist of the base pairs about the helix axis shows the straight DNA free in solution is most stable with about 10 1/2 base pairs per turn rather than 10 as observed in the solid state, whereas superhelical DNA in chromatin is most stable with about 10 base pairs per turn. This result, which has a simple physical interpretation, explains the pattern of nuclease cuts and the linkage number changes observed for DNA arranged in chromatin.

MeSH Terms
Chromatin DNA DNA, Superhelical Nucleic Acid Conformation
Chemicals
Chromatin DNA, Superhelical DNA
Authors & Affiliations
1 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Levitt M
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Article Info
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Abbr.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
ISSN
0027-8424
DOI
10.1073/pnas.75.2.640
Published
1978-02-00
Pages
640-4
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
7505876
PMCID
PMC411311
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1073/pnas.75.2.640 PMC Full Text View journal details
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