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. 1988 Jul 25;16(14A):6607–6616. doi: 10.1093/nar/16.14.6607

The helical repeat of underwound DNA in solution.

S M Richardson 1, T C Boles 1, N R Cozzarelli 1
PMCID: PMC338317  PMID: 3399409

Abstract

Closed circular DNA was relaxed with a topoisomerase in the presence of varying concentrations of the intercalating dye, ethidium bromide, to create underwound, planar DNA rings. We directly determined the helical repeat of these DNA molecules by the Gaussian center method and found that it varied as a simple predicted function of the degree of underwinding and the helical repeat of relaxed, dye-free DNA. We discuss these results in light of a recent mathematical treatment of DNA structure which predicts that the helical repeat of supercoiled DNA molecules in solution obeys the same function.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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