Supercoiling and looping promote DNA base accessibility and coordination among distant sites

Jonathan M. Fogg, Allison K. Judge, Erik Stricker, Hilda L. Chan and Lynn Zechiedrich ()
Additional contact information
Jonathan M. Fogg: Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology
Allison K. Judge: Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Erik Stricker: Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology
Hilda L. Chan: Graduate Program in Immunology and Microbiology
Lynn Zechiedrich: Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract DNA in cells is supercoiled and constrained into loops and this supercoiling and looping influence every aspect of DNA activity. We show here that negative supercoiling transmits mechanical stress along the DNA backbone to disrupt base pairing at specific distant sites. Cooperativity among distant sites localizes certain sequences to superhelical apices. Base pair disruption allows sharp bending at superhelical apices, which facilitates DNA writhing to relieve torsional strain. The coupling of these processes may help prevent extensive denaturation associated with genomic instability. Our results provide a model for how DNA can form short loops, which are required for many essential processes, and how cells may use DNA loops to position nicks to facilitate repair. Furthermore, our results reveal a complex interplay between site-specific disruptions to base pairing and the 3-D conformation of DNA, which influences how genomes are stored, replicated, transcribed, repaired, and many other aspects of DNA activity.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25936-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-25936-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25936-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().