Proteins Transform DNA

Proteins Transform DNA into “Molecular Velcro”

(HealthNewsDigest.com)…Proteins critical for compacting DNA in preparation for cell division actually interact with the double helix to fashion it into a kind of -molecular Velcro,- HHMI researchers have discovered.

The proteins, called condensins, are important for a variety

of housekeeping processes in chromosomes, but the mechanics

behind their function have been largely unknown. When the

researchers alternately stretched and compressed a single

molecule of DNA with condensins attached, they found that

the DNA extended in stepwise “clicks,” akin to Velcro

unzipping.

The successful manipulation of a single DNA molecule with

condensin proteins attached makes it plausible to think

about using a similar strategy to explore the machinery that

processes chromosomes in the cell.

Research published in the June 3, 2004, issue of Science.

HHMI investigator(s):

Carlos Bustamante, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

For the full story, go to http://www.hhmi.org/news/bustamante3.html

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