Inside cells, DNA is under/overtwisted, resulting in the formation of 'supercoiled' loops, resembling what can happen to long cords or garden hoses in our homes." In contrast with relaxed DNA ...

Traits as diverse as the color of a person's eyes and the scent of a rose are determined by the information contained in DNA. Learn how this information is coded by strings of molecules called ...

DNA can be further compressed through a twisting process called supercoiling (Figure 9). Most prokaryotes lack histones, but they do have supercoiled forms of their DNA held together by special ...

Mertz’s interests lay in the latter of these two projects. The scientific community knew little about SV40 or its supercoiled circular DNA at the time. Therefore, Mertz began a side project looking at ...

DNA gyrase operates like a tiny molecular machine, carefully twisting and stabilising bacterial DNA. This twisting, known as supercoiling, is similar to winding an elastic band: as it twists, it ...

A new method for mapping torsion provides insights into the ways that the genome responds to the torsion generated by RNA polymerase II.