DNA strand study: unexpected flexibility

BLACKSBURG, Va., Dec. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have completed what they believe is the first simulation that explores the full range of motions of a DNA strand of 147 base pairs.

That length, say the Virginia Tech researchers, is required to form the fundamental unit of DNA packing in living cells -- the nucleosome.

The scientists said sequencing the human genome -- determining the order of DNA building blocks -- has not completely solved the code of how DNA directs various cellular processes. In addition to the sequence of the base pairs, the instructions are in the packaging -- how DNA is folded within a cell.

The Virginia Tech scientists said they used novel methodology and the university's System X supercomputer to conduct their experiment. And they found, contrary to a long-held belief that DNA is hard to bend, the simulation shows in crisp atomic detail that DNA is considerably more flexible than commonly thought.

The study in the December issue of the Biophysical Journal is also available at biophysj.org/cgi/content/full/91/11/4121.