Research finds Supercoiled DNA Twists into Unexpected Shapes

Scientists have created a few new images of the three-dimensional structure of supercoiled DNA. Various DNA shapes including figure-8-s were identified against the well-known in popular culture double helix of the DNA.

A powerful microscopy technique was used by researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine to achieve the imaging which were later examined using supercomputer simulations run at the University of Leeds. It’s often touted as the only structure of DNA.

In a study published this week in the journal Nature Communications, Dr. Sarah Harris from the University of Leeds suggests that studying these supercoiled DNA shapes could enable us to develop better drugs and treatments, especially treatments that directly affect the DNA, like chemotherapy for example.

New research shows that DNA coils into insane shapes.

According to the researchers, what they noticed turned their conception of DNA’s stable double helix structure. And that idea shaped scientific research for more than 50 years.

“We had to make circles so the ends would trap the different degrees of winding”, the author added. New drugs may become readily available after the discovery such as enhanced antibiotics or cancer superdrugs. If the key doesn’t fit the lock, you can not open the door to breakthrough cures to modern diseases. We teach about it in public schools for more than four decades. It has the shape of a double helix. The double-helix DNA is only a small part of the real genome, about 12 DNA base pairs. Then, they used an enzyme that manipulates the twist of DNA.

There are essentially 3 billion base pairs that holds up the complete set of DNA instructions amid humans. This effect implies that the DNA within the circles should look and act just like the for much longer DNA that the enzyme encounters in human cells.

Both to fit DNA into nucleus, and to work with it through a variety of biological processes, our cells need to modify the shape of the DNA itself. After a series of experiments, it showed that the enzyme relieved the winding stress from all of the supercoiled circles that is present in a living human body. Scientists simulated the coiling of DNA molecules in the lab to see how coiling changed the way the circles appeared.

“Some of the circles had sharp bends, a few were figure-8s, and others looked like racquets or sewing needles”. “Some looked like rods because they were so coiled”. Here, images of tiny DNA looped into a figure-8, frozen and viewed with microscopy (yellow), with a computer simulation of its predicted shape superimposed.

The findings reveal a bit more about how DNA acts and looks. She is confident about the increasing role of supercomputers in the development of drugs. “We are trying to do a puzzle with millions of pieces, and they all keep changing shape”, Dr Harris concluded.